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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23859772">House of Cards</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/RulerOfCats/pseuds/RulerOfCats'>RulerOfCats</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The Fates [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Naruto</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Comedy, F/M, Family, Fanfiction, Friendship, Humor, Pre-Naruto Canon Era, Rebirth, Reborn - Freeform</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 22:14:32</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>49,967</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23859772</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/RulerOfCats/pseuds/RulerOfCats</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Death has a strange sense of humor. I had failed in protecting my teammates, and as punishment, I am thrown back in time and into the body of my killer no less. Growing up in a family of assassins who cared more about money than kin wasn't easy, but neither was inhabiting the body of that very same assassin who slaughtered my friends. </p><p>Of course, in the grand scheme of things, Death always finds a way.<br/>Itachi/OC</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Uchiha Itachi/Original Female Character(s)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The Fates [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1719502</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Prologue<br/>--</p><p>
  <em>"I wonder if I've been changed in the night. Let me think. Was I the same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little different. But if I'm not the same, the next question is 'Who in the world am I?' Ah, that's the great puzzle!"</em>
  <br/>
  <b>― Lewis Carroll</b>
</p><p>
  <b>
    
  </b>
</p><p>      <b>THE WORLD HAD TO BE TURNING MY LIFE,</b> and now my death, into one big joke. </p><p>      It couldn't of been a mere instant after my death, with me, standing over my blonde and bloody corpse, for me to be reborn. Like, literally reborn. Many people would be a like, 'well at least you get to live again?'. Like no. Fuck you. </p><p>      I'm living the fucking dream right now. Shitting my pants. Learning how to get my chubby legs to start moving like some crippled little bitch. <br/><br/>        But this story isn't about me literally shitting my own pants.</p><p>       Now, death isn't so bad, what with my life being such a big bore. I was a medic, and I graduated with no remarkable skills other than being a very talented medic. My Chakra control was probably the only thing I could brag about, but sadly, I was never much of a fighter. </p><p>      Ironically, I chose to be a medic because I had been afraid of death, and of fighting and the like. It wasn't really some noble need to help people or stop death. If it hadn't been for my sister's murder, I probably wouldn't of been a ninja at all. But when my sister died, all the pressure of going down the ninja path fell on the next born. So going into the academy hadn't really been a choice, since my parents practically forced me.</p><p>      If I could be reincarnated, at one time I would have wanted to open a bakery and maybe get married. I had always dreamed of such things in my life as Kazama Misaki. It had been my life's goal, but then my teachers found out about my innate ability for healing, which was rare among academy students and thusly pushed me into Iryō-Ninjutsu.</p><p>        I had begun to think I just wasn't meant for making my own choices in life.</p><p>       I still remember my hands, glowing green over the crippled body of my fallen teammate. I still remember the fear, hastening my touch. I remember looking towards the forest as the sound of footsteps that crunched fallen leaves and scurried around the clearing. </p><p>       I remember the adrenaline, making my heart pound into my chest and echo through my head. "Don't you dare die!" I ordered, looking down at Hikaru, who slightly smiled at my tone.</p><p>        "You have to run," he whispered, almost harsh as he spat up blood. He could barely speak, and the hole in his lung was beginning to fill with blood. </p><p>       I felt my eyes begin to tear up, frozen in my place. "I won't make it far. You'll have to help me," I said urgently, still attempting to close the wound. He glanced at my shaking hands, and his palm weakly cupped my own.</p><p>       "This isn't..." He coughed again. "Your fault."</p><p>      "You took the hit for me...of course it's my fault," I replied, feeling my tears restricting my ability to talk. The salty liquid had begun to suffocate me.</p><p>       "Misa...ki..." His eyes were wide, and he shoved me out of the way, the last of his strength leaving him. In the place of where my body was, a blade shot through the air, cracking into his skull. </p><p>       His blood splattered against my face and my eyes were wide as my bloody hands, that had been pressing against his wound, drifted to my face as the crazed eye of his killer darted to me. She was drenched in the blood of my fallen teammates, and her orange hair was scattered and messy. Her right eye was covered in bandages, making her look all the more daunting.</p><p>       "Hi-Hikaru," I felt myself stutter out, just as she removed her kodachi from his skull. The sound of the slushing of blood and brains made me want to vomit, but fear, and palm pressed up against my lips, kept it at bay. My other hand trembled with a tight grip on the grass as she draped the bloodied blade over her shoulder.</p><p>       "Don't scream, little girl," the woman whispered, oddly calm, and was in front of me in an instant with her speed rendering me speechless. "I love the silence," she murmured, her face was warped, like that of a demon and her one eye that was showing was glowing red with Chakra. Her fingers, thin and nimble, tore off the bandages around her eye. Her other eyelid was open, and black, sucking in my gaze and my voice and everything that had once been Kazama Misaki. The Chakra was radiating off her and I found myself staring into her gaping black void of an eye, that was swirling with a dark Chakra.</p><p>      I screamed and I saw her face warp into annoyance before she gave me a wide, catlike grin and her fingers tore into my throat and ripped out my tongue.</p><p>       And this is how I died.</p><p>      As the darkness drifted around me I didn't feel anything. I didn't feel the fear nor the pain. I couldn't see anything but the blackness of nothing. Was this death? An endless stream of nothingness? I couldn't even bring myself to care.</p><p>       And that was when I heard the voice, echoing into my ear.</p><p>      "Do you want to die, girl?" The voice was mechanical, neither male nor female, but deep and almost animal-like.</p><p>      I found myself at a loss, in between yes and no. "As Kazama Misaki...I made so many mistakes," I finally said, my voice free of emotion. "I was stupid and weak."<br/><br/>      The voice chuckled into my ear.</p><p>     "Is that so? Do you wish to be strong, girl?" The voice asked, and I shrugged, having no feeling in my mind.</p><p>      "I don't care," I stated, and I felt as if the darkness was staring at me. As if I were in the belly of a monster and it was all just looking at me.</p><p>      The voice laughed, and it sounded like nothing I had ever heard before. "What do you want?"</p><p>      "..." I was silent in my contemplation. "I want another chance. I want to be important...more than a memory. Misaki will be forgotten...I don't want that. I don't want to be afraid of anything...ever again nor do I want to be haunted by weaknesses. I don't want to die, alone and cowering in tears. I want more than strength...I want I want a chance to prove I was more than all this."</p><p>      "Do you believe that another chance would make any difference?"</p><p>      "I believe I be better. I could change the way things went."<br/><br/>      "Quite the ambition for a dead girl."</p><p>      "What are you?" I replied, my emotion coming out in my confusion as I looked around the darkness around me. My legs were covered in deep water, my memories hazy as I took in the scene of black. Still, no matter how I squinted, I saw nothing. </p><p>      "I just need someone to...make a difference," it told me, and I felt my blood run cold when I felt as if something was breathing on me. "Someone to...change the way your world turned out."<br/><br/>      "I can change it," I told it, my brows knitted as I reached out my hand. "I can be stronger. Smarter. Faster."</p><p>      "There's such goodness in your heart. Deep down. Yes. I think you will do just fine. I hope you don't come to detest your inner desire, dead girl. You will be bound to make millions of ripples. I will enjoy watching your desires play out...lets hope we don't meet again, <em>dead</em> <em>girl</em>..." The voice said, and almost sounded like it was fading toward the end or my hearing was fading. I wasn't sure which.</p><p>      But after that I don't know what was going on. All I knew was that it was sticky and too warm and I couldn't breath and it smelled.</p><p>      I remember crying, with such a high pitched, siren sound that I wanted to die...again. I remember feeling cold and the world was black and I was being passed around. </p><p>      Not many people could say they remembered their own birth, and I think there is a reason for that.</p><p>       It fucking sucks.</p><p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Gallymoggers</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>CHAPTER ONE<br/>-•-<br/>GALLYMOGGERS</p><p>
  
</p><p>      <b>SIX HOURS.</b> That was how long it took for Tsukasa to completely lose her patience. By this point, it was twirling one of her throwing knives that kept her sane. Her eye was closed, and a bit of her hair was whipping in her face from the wind, despite the fact that she had cut and styled it short to make this not happen.</p><p>       At this point, she was fairly close to heading back to Konoha by herself. <em>This was strange, belonging to Konoha that is, as I was fairly certain that this body had been a Kiri ninja when she killed me</em>. Since she held no headband when she slaughtered Shion and Hikaru, the details were a bit less clear. Knowing a part of the future was a real pain in the ass and a burden more than anything else.</p><p>      Although, changing parts of the future had to be easy. <em>I could literally wake up one night and be all like 'time to kill the Hokage' and like that the Leaf is destroyed by Orochimaru.</em></p><p>      Tsukasa's eyes widened, her grip on her kunai slightly lessening as she stopped twirling the throwing knife. <em>I could be like God</em>. <em>Smite the wicked and all that bullshit.</em></p><p>      She sighed, twirling the knife again; her form lazily sprawled on the rock.</p><p>
  <em>       Sounds like a lot of work, if you ask me.</em>
</p><p>      It wasn't as if she even could kill the Hokage or anything even remotely near his level. She wasn't even old enough to drink a drop of alcohol. This was annoying, since upon finding out that she was in the body of her own killer, getting drunk was the first thing on her mind. Unfortunately, when she found out, she could barely hold down milk let alone a tall glass of bourbon. </p><p>      Her grip on her throwing knife tightened just as she heard the sound of leaves moving in the bushes. She didn't stand up as her sister's target came charging at her the moment their gaze connected. Her umbrella, open and resting on her shoulder, kept the rain from her face. The moment his hand rose, a fist of water spurred out with such force that she could hear it against the wind. It didn't look to Tsukasa like he was attacking her maliciously, and more so seemed like he would of attacked anyone to get them out of his way. He was running away from something.</p><p>      Before he could hit her, Tsukasa's sister Shunshin'ed in front of her, taking the full force of the punch against the water and rushing through it to allow the fist to collide against her cheek.</p><p>      The man's gaze upon her changed as Tsukasa felt her sister's Chakra burst from her body. Tsukasa's legs were still crossed, and she paid no heed when Kira's hands slithered around the man's wrist. His face was horrified when he met Izana Kira head on, and the power of her own Chakra had already begun to change and maul her face. She paid no head as she pressed her fingers up against the man's face, despite the way he attempted to squirm from from her strengthening grasp.</p><p>      "I'm going to finger fuck your eye sockets," she whispered, and Tsukasa felt her eye rolling back as she scoffed.</p><p>      "G-Get away from me," he stuttered, and she grinned. The moment Tsukasa saw Kira's fingers go for his eyes, she turned her head away. All Tsukasa heard were his screams as Kira fisted her fingers into his eye sockets and pulled.</p><p>      It was silent after that, and Tsukasa heard a thump as the man hit the ground. Before a word could be spoken, Kira had turned towards Tsukasa, flattening her bloody palms near her sister's face as she held out both eyes. In each hand they rested, with the optic nerve in between her fingers. The way she held it was mocking, as it looked like her hands had eyes.</p><p>      "Don't turn your eye away, sis," Kira laughed, bringing the dead eyes into Tsukasa's face. "I got them for you. Maybe you can choose which one you like and have two eyes again." She laughed harder, before completely crushing them in clenched fists. Before the blood could splatter against Tsukasa's face, she brought her umbrella out in front of her as she swiftly moved aside and twirled the umbrella back over her head, so fast that she didn't get much of rain on her.</p><p>      The moment she was in standing position, ignoring Kira's jab at Tsukasa's one eye, she turned towards her. Tsukasa immediately noticed that Kira's eyes were still struggling to return to normal as they looked white and wide as cloth of a stitched doll. Slowly, as she caught Tsukasa's gaze, her expression began to return to that of Izana Kira.</p><p>      When she was finally back to normal, or as normal as an Izana can be, she dropped to her knees, her hands covered in blood. She stared down at them, her eyes wide in shock as Tsukasa stood by her, her umbrella blocking out the rain for the both of them.</p><p>      Her eyes, now back to their original hazy silver, lingered on the Ame ninja she had killed.</p><p>      "You finished your job," Tsukasa murmured. Her voice was soft so she began to wonder if Kira could hear her. "Who cares how you had to do it?"</p><p>      She wiped her hands against the grass before standing up, knocking Tsukasa's umbrella to the side so it no longer covered her. Tsukasa blinked, watching the rain start to wash the blood from her hands. She bent down and grabbed the Ame nin's headband, tying it to her leg and adding it to her collection. She made a motion for Tsukasa to come closer, and Tsukasa found herself sighing, gripping the bottom handle of her umbrella before pulling. This showed the glint of steel that gleamed from the holster that was her umbrella.</p><p>      Tsukasa took a calm step forward, kneeling down next to the man and raised the needle like blade to the man's neck. Still, she couldn't seem to lower it as she stared into the man's eyes. It was embarrassing, especially when Kira shoved her to the side. She grabbed the blade from Tsukasa's hands and shoved the tip into the man's neck with no hesitation. Then, with a skillful use of Chakra control that Tsukasa could not replicate, but Misaki could have, she sent a sharp wave of Chakra that extended into a cleaver down the blade. The head snapped off and Tsukasa looked away in the shame of it all. Still without her umbrella, her body was covered in rain. Kira glanced towards her, her silver eyes harsh as she tossed the umbrella to her sister. </p><p>      The bloody thing, a blade instead of a pole, rested beside Tsukasa. She grabbed a small handkerchief, soaking it in rain water, and running it over the metal blade. When the blood was off, she sheathed the blade with the covering so it looked once again like a normal umbrella.  </p><p>      Tsukasa pulled out a storage scroll and sealed his head into it, trying to stop her own hands from shaking. She saw Kira give her a glance, but said nothing against it. Tsukasa looked down at her hands, noticing the whiteness of her skin had paled considerable, but quickly went back to normal once the Chakra receded.</p><p>      She grabbed the scroll, shoving it into one of the six storage containers she had strapped to her belt. Next, she gripped onto her umbrella, but it was useless since she was already soaked. </p><p>      "Never had a Ame headband before," Kira murmured, and on her leg held a Kiri, Kumo, Iwa, and now Ame headbands. She held her hands up and performed a quick fire Jutsu, setting the body on fire while Tsukasa continued to twirl her umbrella over her head.</p><p>       She wasn't exactly sure when they would pass the borders of the rain country (having never been good with geography), and it looked to Tsukasa that Kira was walking on pure power of will at this point. She made no offer to help her, as being only seven years old had its setbacks and limitations of strength.</p><p>      Also, Tsukasa was still bitter about Kira's obvious mockery of her loss of an eye, among other things.</p><p>      But traveling alongside Kira did have its perks--for as long as Kira was still breathing and still high off the earlier Chakra release, Tsukasa was, in <em>theory</em>, allowed to sleep throughout the night.</p><p>      Downside was that her high on adrenaline and Chakra made her have very few differences with that of a rabid dog or a Chihuahua with more bite than bark. Soon, Tsukasa found that sleep was impossible, as she couldn't seem to drift with her excessive noise in the form of fidgeting and spiking of Chakra. The crackling of the fire did help to soothe Tsukasa into a calmer state, but that calm state still required her to be awake.</p><p>      So she was now awake, cranky, and watching the fire crack in the night. Her mind was rather blank, as if she were dead already, and she soon found herself shuffling her deck of cards. Kira watched, her eyes drawn to the skillful way Tsukasa shuffled with the cards.</p><p>      Nimble fingers had been required, as her time being Misaki had escalated. Her as Tsukasa however, had no such skill and she had found herself having to reteach her hands its old tricks. The irony that she was training the body of the girl who killed her wasn't lost on her. It wasn't difficult to put the two and two together, especially after she lost her eye, but she had to commend the reaper. He did have quite the sense of humor to place her in this body of all the billions available.</p><p>      Still, she couldn't help but try to forget the pitch blackness of the afterlife.</p><p>     "Was that something you picked up in the west?" Kira asked slowly, just as Tsukasa cut the deck and began passing out the cards and towards the imaginary player. "Was it fun in the isles?" she mused, obviously not looking for an answer, and being a lazy seven year old, Tsukasa didn't press the matter. </p><p>      The lands beyond the elemental countries were beyond what she had visited in her previous life. Far past the Earth country was the isles. It was a place of unrest and instead of nations, it was merely a bunch of very tiny countries. Each was ruled by a different kingdom. This made it all disorganized and messy. But, she also was forced to see first hand on the horrors that the Third War had brought upon this world with how far it spread past the elemental countries.</p><p>      At this point, Tsukasa couldn't even be certain what time period she had been thrown into, as the Tsukasa who killed her didn't exactly give her a chance to ask her age. Traveling wasn't so bad, and she did learn the art of poker and how to give a lap dance while stealing a man's wallet. The orange haired girl doubted that they meant to teach her that, as they hadn't the sense to realize that she wasn't actually the toddler they thought she was, and she had nothing better to do than observe them. Of course, she couldn't do it it yet. It was yet another skill she couldn't do until she reached a suitable age. </p><p>      Tsukasa wasted no time to make a clone, who sat securely across from her. The clone wasted no time in grabbing the cards and crossing her legs to sit down across from the real Tsukasa.</p><p>      "Now that's just depressing. Where did you learn that Jutsu?" Kira commented, laying her head against the ground. Tsukasa's expression didn't change as she stared her clone down, five cards, loosely placed in her hand. She placed two down, and the clone did the same after they both raised the ante with the money she had earned from the mission so far and pickpocketing Kira for a couple thousand ryō.</p><p>      The clone raised Tsukasa's bet and their eyes connected, not knowing whether it had a hand or was simply bluffing. It was difficult, as many had pointed out about the real Tsukasa, said girl didn't give much indication of mood or emotion. The real Tsukasa could see just how much as she stared at her clone. It wasn't something she liked to do often since actually looking at herself was difficult the older she got. Just before Tsukasa placed her cards down, she felt her clone go up in smoke, having ran out of time and its cards quickly found themselves dropping to the ground. It seemed the amount of time Tsukasa could keep up a clone was still irregular. </p><p>      Tsukasa reached over and looked at them, scoffing at its weak hand.</p><p>      It only had a Jack as high card--proving that it had been bluffing. Tsukasa sighed, now once again bored.</p><p>      Kira's snore caught her off guard, as she was never one to sleep after a kill and her form was indeed uncomfortably tense in her sleep. This made it obvious that she had forced herself to sleep. She probably got sad with Tsukasa's pathetic attempt at playing with friends, which wasn't too surprising.</p><p>      As Misaki, she had loads of friends. She was a delight, albeit a bit weak and cried too easily. Tsukasa however, didn't have anyone. After she lost her eye at two years old, rumors began to spread around Konoha. She had been noticed by the academy children, and soon after she found out why her family was reluctant to send her to school. It seemed like the Izana clan wasn't well liked in Konoha, so the moment she began to get noticed because of the whole, gorged eye thing, no one would let her play ninja or talk to her at all.</p><p>      She found herself frowning at the thought.</p><p>    <em>  I am a grown woman. I didn't want to play their stupid children's games anyway.</em></p><p>      Tsukasa sighed, taking out one of her storage scrolls and activating the seal. After the cloud of smoke dissipated from the seal, She grabbed her tea and wasted no time to pour herself a cup, preparing herself  for the long night.</p><p>═════ °• ♔ •° ═════</p><p>      The morning was cold and still had the late night's morning dew, lingering in the grass. The smell was fresh and clean, but Tsukasa wasn't able to appreciate any of it from her obvious lack of sleep. Kira had proved too unreliable and Tsukasa soon found Kira sleeping past the sound of her throwing knives, landing and surrounding her sister's body. Having nothing to do to keep up the long night, using Kira as target practice was Tsukasa's only amusement.</p><p>      Obviously, Kira came out unharmed, proving Tsukasa's aim needed more work and training.</p><p>      Other than that, the road to Konoha was uneventful, and she began to wish that they would eventually get attacked. Tsukasa even began to act more vulnerable for shits and giggles, but soon found that not many people traveled from Ame in the mid winter.</p><p>      Watching the unprepared Kira, struggle in the rain, seemed to be her only major source of entertainment in the day. At night, they were both annoyed with the weather and found that sleep wasn't coming to either of them. They instead settled for hating each other openly, as they couldn't exactly scowl at the weather.</p><p>      "This is because of you," Kira commented after an hour of sleepless rain.</p><p>      "How?" Tsukasa had asked, and her knees squished into her chest. "I didn't ask you to escort me back. I could have made the trip myself."</p><p>      "You're like <em>five</em>. You aren't even potty trained yet. I was being a good sister you ungrateful one eyed freak," Kira retorted and Tsukasa scowled.</p><p>      "I'm seven. I was potty trained at 1 and fuck you. You tried to sell me to an Ame brothel," she retorted, just as bitterly.</p><p>      "How did you know about that?"</p><p>      Tsukasa didn't answer to her question and it went on like this for three days, with little over an hour of sleep, until they reached the foot hills, nearing the country of fire. At this point, the only company came from the merchants on the road. No matter how many times they crossed paths with one, the merchants always seemed surprised that an seven year old and a woman of no more than sixteen were traveling in the dangerous roads leading to Konoha.</p><p>      Tsukasa had no problem with being underestimated, and swiftly found herself in card games with many of the traders they met on the road.</p><p>     "Pay up mister," Tsukasa said, shuffling the cards as the man grumbled something along the lines of 'this is bullshit'. This was a reaction she had long since gotten used to in her years of making little old men cry like little old bitches.</p><p>      He reluctantly handed the girl a couple thousand ryō. Kira merely watching as Tsukasa collected from five merchants along the road, until by the time they were on their last travel day, rumor had spread faster than they could walk about the infant child who was scamming people out of their money.</p><p>      Being compared to a toddler was beginning to grow more and more annoying, but she was even more annoyed when no one wanted to play against her.</p><p>      That being said, she was back where she left off.</p><p>
  <em>      Bored as fuck.</em>
</p><p>      Also, sleepy. Big surprise there.</p><p>      By the time they made it to the village gates, Tsukasa was stepping on the tips of her toes, just to have something to do so she wouldn't fall asleep whilst walking. She had found out earlier that day that doing so was completely possible and if Kira hadn't of saved her, she wouldn't be alive or would have a bad case of broken everything. The sun was also still annoying, so Tsukasa used her umbrella to keep the shine from her eyes. Her time in the Ame village really brought up her dislike for the sun, much to her past self's very tan dismay.</p><p>      The guards seemed to stiffen at her sister presence, and Tsukasa had tilted her head to the side as they stared her sister down, barely sparing the smaller girl a glance.</p><p>      "Izana Kira," they said before finally giving Tsukasa their time of day. "Who's the infant?"</p><p>      "My little sister. Back from her three year travel. She doesn't have current identification, we are going to get it reinstated now," Kira stated, almost sweetly, which seemed to make the guards grow more nervous as they swiftly let them in, without even asking for Kira's obvious and expired ID.</p><p>      We walked past, and Tsukasa found herself scoffing, despite being tired.</p><p>     "What?" Kira asked and Tsukasa shook my head.</p><p>      "Konoha has shit security," she replied, specifically remembering the time when the two S-Ranked criminals, Itachi Uchiha and Kisame fish-sticks had been <em>eating</em> at a fucking restaurant. They hadn't even bothered to remove their Akatsuki cloaks.</p><p>
  <em>      No wonder the Third Hokage died.</em>
</p><p>    Tsukasa shrugged after hearing Kira's indigent scoff. What should she expect from a village whose police force gets murdered and a new one is never reinstated with the same strength. Now that Tsukasa had visited many of the far western countries, she could personally be one to vouch for the revival of a system where Konoha's enemies can't walk into the village gates and eat ramen.</p><p>
  <em>      But maybe that's asking for too much.</em>
</p><p>      "Best get this head to the client," Kira said after letting out a sigh, obviously not interested in the gate guard's lack of proper procedure.</p><p>      "Not like it's going anywhere," Tsukasa commented in return, and Kira shook her head.</p><p>      "Yeah, well, I'd like to go somewhere. Preferably in a nice bed with real food and less uninvited company," she retorted, causing Tsukasa to frown.</p><p>      "You invited me. I was perfectly comfortable traveling alongside Ichigo," Tsukasa replied, not wasting much breath in arguing with her.</p><p>      "What will the rest of the Izana think with you walking into the village with a branch 6 member?"</p><p>      "I'd say they'd be impressed I'm alive, considering you all abandoned me in the Jōmae Village." Jōmae was a village full of talented ninja, good at collecting all sorts of information, and yet not one of them knew how to find a lost three year old's family. Tsukasa had her own suspicions they didn't want to put the effort to try. </p><p>      "It's not like we meant to leave you there. As you can see we've had more on our minds than taking care of a two year old."</p><p>     "I was three."</p><p>      "Whatever," she replied, waving Tsukasa off as they walked along the path towards the client's home. </p><p>      "For four years. Not three."</p><p>      "You're alive, Tsu-chan," Kira retorted. "And I came back for you."</p><p>      "After four years. And you didn't come for me." <em>If she had come back for me, she'd be in the Land of Keys, not Rain.</em></p><p>      "What else could I have been in Amegakure for?" Kira asked, incredulously, and Tsukasa mirrored her look when they came to an abrupt halt. Tsukasa held up the sealing scroll, which Kira looked at for a moment, as if she forgot.</p><p>     "You're alive. And you're getting paid upon return." Her black hair curled over her shoulder as she bent over to look Tsukasa in the eye. "I'd say it is a win, win, dear sister." Tsukasa stared at the small, green flower tattoos just above Kira's eyebrows, spitefully.</p><p>      Tsukasa didn't particularly care about bonding with her immediate family, especially since the Izana clan was a group of nut jobs. Not to mention it was separated by the weirdest competitive branch system. It felt more like living in a geisha house than a home. Or maybe a bordello. Tsukasa wouldn't be surprised if half of them prostituted themselves for money, considering money was their favorite thing.</p><p>      It wasn't her ideal choice at reincarnation, as she found four years ago, when they left her in the Keys. A one eyed toddler, abandoned in a nameless country while they all competitively chased down their bounty.<em> Like yeah, I was 18 in mind, but they didn't know that.</em></p><p>      It wasn't a horrible four years, as she soon found out that there weren't that many people who wouldn't help out a three-year-old child. A crew of traveling entertainers, who raised her for around four years traveling around the countries, picked her up. Tsukasa would still be with them if it weren't for Izana Ichigo, from branch 6 of the Izana clan, who happened to have recognized her in Ame. Then she got stuck with Izana Kira, one of the two siblings who abandoned her.</p><p>      Tsukasa was, at least, starting to figure out why the real Tsukasa went insane and killed around the countryside. She was starting to have the urge as well, but not to kill everyone, just Izana Kira. <em>Although, I suppose, that could be because of my blatant lack of sleep and patience.</em></p><p>      They were soon at the front of the iron gates, and she handed Kira the scroll, allowing her to turn in the head so they could get paid. Since she wasn't originally on the pay roll and was only seven, she made Tsukasa wait outside until she was finished.</p><p>      <em>And so I waited...for an hour.</em></p><p>      Tsukasa sighed, pressing her head into her knees as she started to get the inkling that Kira ditched her and took the reward for herself. Even though Tsukasa was the one who Kira made track the guy down, go in disguise, and seal the head. Her fists clenched in annoyance as she slowly stood up, trying to calm her anger as she walked away from the gates.</p><p>
  <em>      It was official. I really hate my new family.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>  </em>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Okay. So first official chapter. It's coming along. I'm doing a sort of, Alice In Wonderland kind of theme for the chapters and characters of the Izana clan. I'm trying to slowly build up to their Chakra and abilities. Misaki, or rather, Tsukasa, doesn't know much about her family since she had only been with them for 3 years.</p><p>Gallymoggers , the title of this chapter, means 'crazy'.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Nunz</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>CHAPTER TWO<br/>-•-<br/>NUNZ</p><p>
  
</p><p>      <b>THE MOMENT TSUKASA GOT NEAR THE IZANA COMPLEX, </b> she made no motion or attempt towards getting back the money Kira owed her. All things considered, she had seen far too much of her for her liking, and she was fairly certain the feeling was mutual. Tsukasa barely remembered the Izana clan's barracks. She considered herself lucky to even remember the location at all. Still, at the entrance was a beautifully dressed girl who opened the gates for Tsukasa as if she had been expecting her. The beautiful, doll like, girl didn't say anything, and only smile in such a way that didn't seem at all friendly. </p><p>      The branches were closed off in different directions with different little paths leading to the respective areas. The road towards branch one was filled with flowers, adorning the pathway and overlooking the large Zen Garden that was flowing and freshly raked. The fact that it really did resemble a Geisha house wasn't unfamiliar to Tsukasa, and she found her eye glancing over the surroundings, still rather uninterested.</p><p>      Tsukasa vaguely caught the glimpse of the back of someone's yukata. It looked brand new with its completely wrinkle-less form and bright color of crimson sheen. She glanced towards the girl's dark black hair, a signature of the Izana clan that Tsukasa never shared. </p><p>      Tsukasa continued walking towards the bridge, which was small and curved over a thin body of water. There was no creaking as she walked over it, as opposed to the last time she had been here. </p><p>      The Izana branch one complex was more luxurious than Tsukasa remembered. It seemed like more money had begun to flood to the outside image of it, and she swiftly found herself vaguely impressed at the glamor of it all.</p><p>      The house itself, where she used to recede, looked empty. All around were different segments of the house, surrounded with an engawa and many shoji doors that did little for privacy. Glancing at the sealed home, her tired and lazy eye scanned the surroundings. Being away for so many years made it fairly difficult to decide just where she was supposed to go</p><p>      Having already knocked, which felt weird to do, Tsukasa decided that no one was interested in letting in an angry seven year old who wanted to go back west. She let out a quiet sigh as she looked down at her hand, forming it into a tight but lazy fist. Her skin slightly discolored as she brought her Chakra into her fist, spreading out through her fingers in a very unstable grip. She glanced towards the sealed gate and brought her fist back before finally slamming it into the oak, shattering it completely.</p><p>      Tsukasa yawned, walking over the broken bits of wood and hearing it slightly break from underneath her steps. At this point, she didn't give two shits about where she was going to sleep and she walked towards a the shoji doors, breaking the lock as she slid it open. The walking she had been doing for so many days had finally caught up to her and she found the nicest looking room and collapsed, her legs shaking and red as her body hit the soft and random mat.</p><p>      Unable to stay awake for a moment longer, her eyes closed and her world turned black.</p><p>═════ °• ♔ •° ═════</p><p>      Tsukasa was fairly certain that the Izana family was probably the best and worst family she could have been stuck with in this vast universe. Best, because she'd rather not get close with her killer's family or any new family in that regards, thus making the distance and chill of the Izana clan all the more inviting. Worst, because they were all raging assholes that would sooner choose money over each other.</p><p>      It was made even more obvious of this fact when her eldest sister, Izana Asa, walked into the room Tsukasa had unknowingly fallen asleep in and kicked her out of her bed. Quite literally having no problem in kicking a seven year old out of her mat, never mind said seven year old was her sister, and settled for sleeping in her place. Izana Asa didn't spare Tsukasa a single glance as she curled up in her blankets and closed her eyes.</p><p>      "Shut the door on your way out," Asa murmured as Tsukasa merely stared at the black haired girl, who almost immediately closed her eyes. In a mere instant Tsukasa noticed dried bits of red, decorating Asa's hair as well as a bit more dry blood, stained against her neck.</p><p>      Tsukasa merely rolled her eye and walked out of the room, paying her no heed as she shut the door behind her and walked out.</p><p>      The house was just as empty feeling as she remembered, much different from the caravan with which she had traveled. Every morning was filled with light and laughter. It was new every day and back then felt like life was more in color. <em>Most of all, it felt like my life, and now it felt like hers.</em></p><p>      Once again, Tsukasa lamented that she had been forced to come back.</p><p>═════ °• ♔ •° ═════</p><p>      Sinking into her seat, Tsukasa found her eye drawn onto that of the 4th Hokage.</p><p>      For the first time, she knew what era death had thrown her.</p><p>  <em>    Smug, pretentious cunt, thy name is death.</em></p><p>      The conversation was long, boring, and rather uneventful. His questions were short and to the point. Tsukasa hadn't met with the 4th in the past, as he had died around the time Misaki was a dumb five year old toddler. She didn't much care since hearing about her sister, Shiori's death at the hands of the Kyuubi's release took precedence. <em>At the very least, Idid have a good birthday the week before that.</em> <em>Seeing him in person instead of on a mountain was pretty cool, I guess. </em>He did look remarkably like the loud mouth village savior Naruto, who, according to the local gossip as Misaki, is like his son or something.</p><p>      Tsukasa heard that the 4th Hokage had sealed the Kyuubi, so that just makes this <em>hilarious</em>. <em>Dad of the year right here no doubt. Still better than my own.</em></p><p>      "Follow up question, where were you?" Minato had asked, to which Tsukasa, as an seven year old with an 18 year old's mind, didn't know how to answer without outing her family as apathetic, unfit, assholes, which went against everything Kira had told her to say when she dropped her off and went to go, <em>and I quote</em>, 'bitch is gonna go get turnt up!'.</p><p>      Tsukasa really <em>didn't</em> want to deal with the backlash of pissing off a group of trained killers who had no problem abandoning a child in a different country.</p><p>      "Family," Tsukasa answered after a brief pause, remembering Kisa's orders to what she was supposed to say. "I was with family."</p><p>      "Why is that?"</p><p>      "My sister thought I needed to get out of the village and it would do me some good..." Tsukasa was fairly certain that the report the Izana family had no doubt filled the time where she went missing would cover this, but she supposed he wouldn't be a leader if he just let it slide.</p><p>      "Why is that?" Minato asked, glancing up from the report that Izana Asa had no doubt written. Being the head of a clan did have its responsibilities so she couldn't say that Tsukasa's eldest sister was a slacker.</p><p>      "My mother died and my dad gauged out my eye," she answered in a deadpan, causing him to slightly wince. "You can say I have bad memories...." At this point she wasn't even trying to put emotion in her voice and she had found a way of talking about the memory as if it was not <em>her</em> it had happened to. It was fairly easy to keep her distance from all things Izana related. He was obviously taken back from the lack of tone in her voice, which made her think he would have trouble conversing with her any further.</p><p>      Misaki had been so emotional, but as Tsukasa, she had found that emotions seemed to come to her slower. She suspected this was how the real Tsukasa had been able to kill people so easily. Not that she was planning on killing people--she just feel like if she <em>did</em>, she wouldn't feel guilty for long.</p><p>      It helped that she was detached from 'Tsukasa' and she could tell that the perceptive 4th Hokage was beginning to understand that.</p><p>      "Why aren't your family with you now?" Minato asked and she blinked in return, thinking over Kira's last quote and Asa's body asleep on the mat.</p><p>      Tsukasa shrugged.</p><p>     "How is your life at home?"</p><p>      Tsukasa shrugged again.</p><p>      "Are you happy where you live?" Minato asked and she gave a deadpan blink.</p><p>      "I am very happy. Can you not tell?"</p><p>      He seemed taken back, and he gave a slight smile, but she could tell he was growing increasingly uncomfortable. <em>That makes two of us.</em></p><p>      "I would very much like to speak to your guardian," he finally said after a long pause of them just staring at each other.</p><p>    <em>  I wish I could say that she would like the same</em>. "I don't think you would," Tsukasa replied after a pause.</p><p>      He sighed, leaning back against his seat. "I'm afraid that I must insist. While I admit you are very advanced and mature for your age," <em>I am technically older than you, </em>"you are still underage and I can't renew your citizenship until I speak to your legal guardian."</p><p>
  <em>      Wow. Being the Hokage must be a chore.</em>
</p><p>      "I see." Tsukasa could already tell her day would be long and tedious and <em>boring.</em></p><p>      "I will send someone to escort you back home," the Yondaime said, and Tsukasa had to stop herself from frowning. <em>So now I can't even walk home by myself?</em> "Once home, you can get your sister and bring her in."</p><p>      "That's sort of annoying," Tsukasa said and he raised a brow, but didn't dignify her comment with a response.</p><p>      A minute didn't even pass until a silver haired Jounin that she recognized as a much younger version of Hatake Kakashi, walked into the room. He looked a lot grumpier than the laid back teacher Tsukasa vaguely remembered.</p><p>      She wasn't that familiar with him on a personal level, but it was hard to <em>not </em>know the annoyingly famous unit of team seven. Especially when a member goes rogue and the others are trained by Sannin. Tsukasa even remembered her old, long dead (<em>or...alive now? In this time he was definitely alive</em>) teammate Hikaru would often make jokes that their team got special treatment despite that there wasn't that much special or remarkable about their abilities.</p><p>      It was bullshit as, when Tsukasa was Misaki, was a medical prodigy would would have killed to be taught by the Sannin Tsunade.</p><p>      "You called," Kakashi said, and the more Tsukasa looked at him, the more she noticed that he was in fact younger by at least 9 years. It was a good look for him, but he was much more attractive in the future.</p><p>      Mentally, we were almost the same and yet he was no doubt going to treat her like a child. <em>The thought still kind of pissed me off.</em></p><p>      "Escort mission," the fourth Hokage said, his face empty. Kakashi's expression didn't look very amused.</p><p>      "Is this a punishment? Cause Koneko was just as much at fault," Kakashi asked, and Tsukasa leaned back into her chair watching the interaction with very mild amusement.</p><p>      "Seems so," Tsukasa commented before standing.</p><p>      "Now now," Minato brushed off with a smile. "Take her back to the Izana complex and then be sure to bring back her eldest sister, Izana Asa," the fourth mentioned, before writing a quick note on a piece of paper and handing it to the silver haired Jounin.</p><p>      Kakashi looked visibly irritated, but took the note regardless, reading it without glancing towards Tsukasa. He shrugged and turned to walk out of the room while she silently followed behind.</p><p>      The silence was rather nice, as both of them were obviously displeased with the development. A part of her was slightly curious as to what the note had said to silence the irritated future sensei, but that part was battling with the part of her that found talking to be troublesome.</p><p>      The walk would obviously be long, as the Izana complex was annoyingly close to the Uchiha complex, which was on the farthest end of Konoha. If she were a Jounin, she'd be pissed to walk back some one eyed kid too.</p><p>      "The fourth thinks the Izana house is an unsuitable environment...doesn't he?" Tsukasa asked, boredom outdoing her desire for silence. "You're here to make sure?"</p><p>      Kakashi glanced at her, his hands in his pockets. It was strange to see him not reading his perverted book, as when she was Misaki that was what he always read when walking through the streets. Maybe he doesn't whip it out in front of children.</p><p>      She scrunched her nose in disgust, not liking the sound of that last sentence.</p><p>      "You're a rather perceptive kid, aren't you?" Kakashi said, continuing to walk.</p><p>      "Not really," she replied, yawning into her palm. People just didn't hide parts of themselves in front of kids, and looking through people had become all she could do when everything else was banned for someone so young. It had become a natural thing when she was with the traveling group of entertainers. She had met more people, interacting and watching, than she had in her entire life as Misaki. You learn things when you travel with freaks, swindlers, and jokers.</p><p>      And, again, people naturally let their guard down when faced with a child. It's like they want to make it easy for her.</p><p>      Kakashi raised a brow, but didn't respond. She had a feeling that he didn't believe her rejection of his statement.</p><p>      "If it was a hostile environment, what then?" Tsukasa asked and Kakashi shrugged.</p><p>      "Usually, kids get sent to the orphanage and then get assigned to a new family based on the family's desire for a child," he said, as nonchalantly as if he were talking about the weather.</p><p>      She noticed his one visibly eye drift to her bandaged eye, and at that moment she didn't have a doubt that he knew about the Izana massacre five years ago. The chaotic event, which had turned her into his fellow one-eyed buddy, was something she could only wish to forget.</p><p>      She hadn't heard much about it in her last life, as the Uchiha massacre had put it in its shadow. The kids at academy talked loads, mostly because the only survivor was in their school. She had never even met an Izana before dying by one. It seemed like Konoha could only remember so much tragedy at once. She wasn't too surprised since the Uchiha massacre was obviously more...<em>famous and nearly wiped out the clan</em>. And the clan was obviously more known due to the fact it was Konoha's police force. An clan of mercenaries and swindlers didn't really like to become a hugely talked about family while the Uchihas had no such affliction.</p><p>
  <em>      Hell, maybe I could get a front row seat to said disaster. Make a party out of it.</em>
</p><p>     Especially if she were sent to an orphanage, judging by Kakashi's expression, it was likely no one would want to adopt a one eyed child of a murderer in a clan of monsters. Izana had never been well liked by anyone who saw them or spoke to them. Then again, Izana didn't like anyone either.</p><p>      "Ah," Tsukasa finally answered in her near tone-less voice.</p><p>      She doubted it would come to that. The Izana compound wasn't hostile, just quiet. Silent as the grave, but beautiful. It held the eerie calm of a dollhouse, and everyone seemed to move at a slow and silent pace, as if they wanted to appear normal. Still it always felt like you were being watched. Creepy was the correct word, which Tsukasa couldn't doubt was the result of their <em>unique</em> Chakra that flooded the shadows and lingered under her skin.</p><p>      It was going to be strange, bringing an outsider into the first branch, as outsiders rarely ever visit for all the reasons stated above.</p><p>      "I don't think it will come to that." Kakashi said, confirming her earlier speculation.</p><p>═════ °• ♔ •° ═════</p><p>      Asa Izana didn't look too happy to be woken up, and she looked at Tsukasa without recognition. Her long black hair, still thick with dry blood, fell over her bare and pale shoulders as her kimono dipped below her elbow. This revealed her skimpy, and tightly bandaged chest. Her bright silver eyes stared back at Tsukasa, exhaustion clear in her face.</p><p>      When recognition finally settled her expression, her two fingers raised and poked Tsukasa in her bandaged socket before she giggled like a schoolgirl.</p><p>      "We all thought you to be dead," she stated with another rather feminine giggle. "Which was a shame cause I had thought of so many jokes, ne, patches? Cyclops?" she yawned out the last demeaning name. "Wait. Wait. Wait. What about wink-ules? Cause now every blink is a wink." Tsukasa blinked in response, no other reaction possible. "Oh! How about righty?" She giggled again.</p><p>      Tsukasa sighed, having seen the eye jokes already coming from the moment Kira had opened her mouth to make the first one.</p><p>      "Ichigo said he'd represent as my guardian in your stead," Tsukasa cut right to the chase, leaning against the open door. "We figured you'd be too busy to get me reinstated in the village."</p><p>      Asa's smile almost immediately disappeared as she straightened her back. "Who said I was busy?" Her voice was hoarse, and when she stood up, her kimono slipped down to her ankles, revealing her in pure bandages and skimpy black lace underwear. "A branch 6, offering to represent <em>you,</em>" she scoffed, ignoring her near naked state as she walked to her full-length mirror, her fingers drifted to the bloodstains on her neck. She wasted no time to use the damp towel, still soaked in a dish of water, and brought it to her body, wiping off the blood.</p><p>      "Leave," she ordered, as her earlier amused tone had disappeared. Tsukasa wasted no time to go, closing the sliding door behind her.</p><p>      Again, due to the competitive nature of the Izana clan, they seemed to want any edge over one another. </p><p>═════ °• ♔ •° ═════</p><p>      Tsukasa noticed that Izana Asa was actually <em>likable</em> when she cleaned up and spoke to the Hokage on her sister's behalf.</p><p>      She was sort of impressed at just how charismatic Asa was. Of course, she was still a complete two-faced witch, but at least she knew how to pretend to care. Tsukasa couldn't say the same for herself or any other Izana she'd ever met. Even Izana Ichigo seemed to only went looking for her to through off the obvious investigation in Tsukasa's disappearance. He didn't have any trouble dropping her off with Izana Kira, who couldn't keep a cat alive let alone a child. </p><p>      Still, it seemed like it was physically <em>difficult</em> for Tsukasa to care about anything. She tried when she was with the caravan. The amount of times they tried to make her laugh or smile came up short. </p><p>      It was easy to medically diagnosis herself as a schizoid, and she wasn't that surprised. To be a hitman, detachment was an important quality. Still, it was not worse than dying she supposed. However, being in a room with her sister's oddly charismatic charm made her doubt the alternatives.</p><p>      Sometimes Tsukasa saw a look flash through Minato's eyes, slightly giving her the impression that he saw through Asa's flood of bullshit. But the look would disappear before she could fully see. Tsukasa had always been good at reading people, but Minato was a rare exception.</p><p>      Thusly, she got her license renewed and, by Asa's charm, she wasn't placed in an orphanage. An odd sense of disappointment flooded Tsukasa's veins. A part of her was slightly hoping for an orphanage. <em>Man, where's the justice?</em></p><p>═════ °• ♔ •° ═════</p><p>      "I don't want my sister to go to the ninja academy. I'd rather have her trained at home like Izana custom." Tsukasa remembered Asa stating, much to her surprise.</p><p>      It was an odd sense of confliction that Tsukasa felt at that moment. On one hand, she had already passed the ninja academy and it was <em>boring</em>, especially since she was overqualified. On another hand, being trained and isolated with only Izana also didn't sound so great. Hence, Izana Tsukasa said nothing on the matter and Minato didn't push it and only smiled. Still Tsukasa caught his eye on the way out with a look he sent her that resembled something akin to pity. Still, the guardian gets the final say, especially if Tsukasa remained silent on the matter.</p><p>      A part of her, that distant traveling glow, knew that isolation couldn't be good for her. It knew that half of her was still submerged in the darkness of this house and of their name.</p><p>      She knew all of this, and yet the longer she lived as in Tsukasa's name, the less she cared about the words and wisdom of Misaki.</p><p>      She did know that she didn't want to die like she did before, forgotten next to broken comrades. The ninja academy and the Leaf ninja's way brought Misaki's fate upon her. It wasn't like she had anything waiting for her in the ninja academy. Maybe if there was something to draw her in, Tsukasa would be more inclined.</p><p>      Tsukasa had begun to understand that it was easy to accept the Izana way. As she was led through the Izana complex, passed the bridge and towards the far end of the complex, she settled into her room. It was exactly as it was left before. No dust, nothing moved, a small crib in the middle and no bed. Asa had made a joke on the crib, but Tsukasa was numb as the shoji doors closed behind her. </p><p>
  <em>       I guess I have no other choice now, but to be Izana Tsukasa.</em>
</p><p>      Being brought back here by the forceful fist of Izana Kira taught her one thing. Choices weren't something she had. No matter how much she wanted to stay traveling the western world didn't matter and her fate was sealed here from the moment she opened her eyes and from the moment she lost one.</p><p>    <em>  I am Tsukasa now, no matter how little I want to be.</em></p><p>
  <em>
    
  </em>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Chapter title is nunz, which means 'don't go'</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Noge</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>CHAPTER THREE<br/>-•-<br/>NOGE</p><p>
  
</p><p>      <b>IZANA TSUKASA DID HAVE A HARD TIME EXPRESSING EMOTIONS IN A </b>way that Misaki never had trouble. This could be because she found everything boring. This could be because she was always too exhausted to care about anything. Mostly, however, it was because the people who thought they were funny, usually never were. </p><p>      "Does the word '<em>smile</em>' mean nothing to you?" Kira repeated, much to Tsukasa's continued boredom and disbelief that she even had to ask.</p><p>      "I thought you were going to teach me how to fight, not become a smiling puppet whore," Tsukasa answered, for the first time since Kira started asking her questions. Kira took a deep inhale of breath, causing her giant tanned chest to push slightly past the skimpy robes that she obviously had no interest in fully closing. She narrowed her bright silver eyes as she brushed tiny bangs away from her tattooed flower, just above her eyebrow.</p><p>      "Listen, the only reason we are allowed to leave this village so much is because we have the name of <em>merchants.</em>" She leaned forward, giving Tsukasa full few of both tattoos just above both of her brows. Tsukasa couldn't help but think they were ugly, with their green shade that obviously went well with her piercing just above her lip and the other just below her lip. All of this hadn't been there the last time Tsukasa had seen her prior to abandonment. Tsukasa's guess was that she had it done during one of the many times she wanted to get 'turnt up' as she so eloquently put it.</p><p>      This went against the disguise to sell this dignified charade as a merchant, because as a person looking at her now, Tsukasa wouldn't buy shit from her. Of course, a reason for that might not be her outer appearance and more of the fact that she would rather Kira were dead.</p><p>      "No one is going to believe that someone like you could have an <em>eye </em>for business<em>,</em>" <em>oh my god, the eye jokes are quite old at this point</em>, "I've seen dogs with more human personality than you," she continued and Tsukasa tilted her head to the side during Kira's lecture.</p><p>      "I should hope so. Many dogs are capable of showing human characteristics, such as fear and joy. Not to mention most nin-canines are capable of speech."</p><p>     Kira obviously didn't appreciate her sister's informative response as she almost immediately gripped Tsukasa by the chin, Kira's grip strong and tight, causing a tiny formation a bruise begin to mark Tsukasa's skin. "Smile," she ordered but Tsukasa didn't speak, although, this could because Kira's grip on her chin prevented such. Mostly it was because she had nothing to say to her continued badgering of smiles and rainbows. </p><p>      Kira roughly let go of Tsukasa's face and leaned away, her legs still wide open with one knee propped up with her arm resting on it while the other laid curved and flat on the ground in a very twisted and even more informal agura style of sitting. Tsukasa's position remained in seiza-style with her kneeling on the mat with her legs folded against her thighs with her buttocks resting on her heels.</p><p>     Sitting in such a position was apparently part of Tsukasa's training, which Kira didn't have to partake.</p><p>      Kira waited for her smile, and Tsukasa slowly decided that obeying her would make both their lives easier. With their little adventure together, they learned that they obviously didn't get along. This was due to Kira being a raging, bossy, bitch among many other horrible personality flaws.</p><p>     Tsukasa slowly smiled, but it felt forced and no doubt looked ridiculous. Kira scoffed as she drank a bit of sake from the ochoko, resting in her flat palm. It's round, cylindrical shape fit perfectly for her needs as she took another sip and spun the liquid in circles as her eyes scanned Tsukasa before she slowly laughed. "I was right. Dogs do have more personality than you."</p><p>     Tsukasa didn't bother to correct her as her face returned to a deadpan. "Did I not expose enough teeth? Did my lips not curve to the right level or somehow look unsymmetrical."</p><p>      "Too much teeth. This isn't difficult. Surely you've smiled before," Kira said with a slowly forming frown.</p><p>       <em>Not much since becoming Tsukasa, </em>but she couldn't tell her that on the grounds that she didn't want to, so she settled with silence. Tsukasa could already tell that Kira's question was rhetoric, as she would rather hear herself speak anyway.</p><p>      "This is stupid," Tsukasa finally stated after a couple minutes of them staring at each other.</p><p>      "It wouldn't be stupid if you didn't have the default expression of a snail," came Kira's smooth retort, causing Tsukasa to raise a single brow.</p><p>     "I am fairly certain the amount of stupidity in the lesson would be the same due to the person teaching it," Tsukasa retorted, and Kira looked ready to claw her other eye out.</p><p>     "Did you just call me stupid?" Kira's voice turned calm, almost an eerie tone that probably would have scared anyone who wasn't Izana Tsukasa.</p><p>     "Not at all. I merely implied it."</p><p>      "I am teaching you out of the kindness of my heart."</p><p>      "That doesn't even exist."</p><p>    She leaned black, and Tsukasa vaguely heard her count to ten as she felt Kira's Chakra spike from her fingertips. Izana Chakra usually, easily, became visible to the naked eye, so Tsukasa was vaguely impressed that it wasn't now. Kira had obviously learned a bit of self-control, unlike the memory Tsukasa had of her prior years where she tired herself out from screaming and emitting Chakra as if it were a huff of breath. Perhaps she learned her lesson of being less of an idiot, but Tsukasa doubted that very much.</p><p>     Kira had never been an intellectual, and usually let brawn and rage drive her over the edge.</p><p>     "I'm done," Tsukasa finally said once Kira opened her eyes, calming herself down.</p><p>      "What the fuck do you mean you're done?" Kira snapped, and Tsukasa shrugged.</p><p>     "I'm bored. I want to fight. Not make conversation and learn how to bow and fake a smile."</p><p>      "Again. We are <em>merchants</em>. You need to learn to be convincing with an act," she replied, her voice lowered in a reasonable calm. "You won't get far in this world if you don't know how to lie with your face and your words."</p><p>     Tsukasa slowly sat back down, and stared Kira in the eyes. "Teach me a Jutsu."</p><p>      "You can't handle knowing a Jutsu. Not yet."</p><p>     "Why?"</p><p>     Kira stared at her, before leaning closer, her eyes blank and bored. "Mold your Chakra in a circle and release through the air."</p><p>      Tsukasa winced, but remembered the exercise as Misaki, so she held her palm flat without question. It was one benefit of growing through these years twice as she never needed to be told twice on how to do something. The Chakra rolled in her palm, and once again, like every other time, Tsukasa felt the strange sting from under her skin. She had discovered it early in her life that using Izana Chakra felt very similar to the feeling of bugs, crawling under her skin. It would discolor Tsukasa's face, as if it took the place of any warmth in her blood. More than that, it never moved the same way twice, as if it were inverted. For example, when she went to move it to her right hand, the Chakra moved to her left. It took years of training exercises learned as Misaki to get a handle of it, but Tsukasa had accepted, albeit reluctantly, that her Chakra control would never be the same.</p><p>      "You're not ready," she said, and Tsukasa broke off the ball of Chakra. "You will lose control at this rate. The Chakra will eat you from the inside before you become unable to suppress what comes next."</p><p>      "What comes next?" Tsukasa had always been afraid to go past certain parameters in her training. The feeling of her own Chakra had creeped her out from a young age, and Tsukasa had long since decided there there was a limit to how long she could use it. </p><p>      "I just don't want you to lose control. You saw me once I used too much. It will be worse for you since I do have control. Still, if it's what you want, walking up a tree will be less of a strain to kill something than learning how to breath fire or whatever your elemental type is, I don't care."</p><p>      "It's fire."</p><p>      "Don't care."</p><p>      "And water."</p><p>      "Don't care."</p><p>      Tsukasa only shrugged and Kira sighed, leaning her head on the Kotatsu table. </p><p>      "Are you done?" Tsukasa asked, watching her bang her head on the table once more. She didn't seem to like her sister's voice as she swiftly stood up.</p><p>       "Tell you what. You reach 9 meters, walking up a tree, with perfect Chakra control and without losing control of yourself, and I will teach whatever the fuck you want."</p><p>     "Would you like me to try smiling again?"</p><p>     "Shut the fuck up."</p><p>      "Language," Tsukasa said with a blank stare.</p><p>      "Fuck you."</p><p>      "You're cursing out a seven year old."</p><p>      "I wouldn't have to if this seven year old wasn't a little bitch."</p><p>      "I learned from the best."</p><p>     Kira looked proud, obviously thinking she was talking about her, "I try."</p><p>      "Not you." </p><p>═════ °• ♔ •° ═════</p><p>      The moment Tsukasa reached the training grounds, her eyes scanned for a tall enough tree. She found one in the clearing a little distance away and immediately walked to it. The training grounds were empty, which never was the case when she was Misaki. It was nice, finally have this one to herself as she remembered getting up early to practice, but there was always a team already using it. If her memory serves, that was usually Kakashi's team, which was one of her only honest reasons for really disliking them.</p><p>      She glanced up and measured the height before taking out a kunai and hitting the 9-meter mark. It might have been off by a couple centimeters, give or take, but she didn't worry about it on the grounds that she didn't give a fuck.</p><p>     She felt Chakra flood through her body and she applied it to her feet without a moment's hesitation. She felt skin lose warmth, and her Chakra suffocate her, but she ignored that as she attempted to keep control of the output as she began to walk up the tree. She had done this a few times in this body, but usually gave up quickly due to the instability of output and input as if she were trying to manage inverted controls. As Misaki, this had been easy, which was why it was so annoying that as Tsukasa, it was not. </p><p>      In theory, it should have worked, but she found that theory always made her its bitch. Her Chakra didn't obey her and after half a meter, the Chakra in her feet gave out until she fell flat on her back. Tsukasa didn't move, stunned that she lost control and let the Chakra slip, as before, she always prided herself in Chakra control. She had been certain that she could take this control into her next life, but it was yet another thing that sucked about this life.</p><p>      Tsukasa stood up, forcing her Chakra back into her feet as she walked up the tree again. She remembered that walking straight up was difficult as Misaki, as her strength had always been lacking in the athletic department. Tsukasa made sure to fix that at a young age, and now she was shaping this body to be far more limber to make up for the fact that using Ninjutsu was at a standstill. </p><p><em>      Flexibility and strength or Chakra control. I never thought I'd have to choose between them.</em> It was bullshit, but she forced herself to walk up anyway. Without much progress, she fell back down.</p><p>      "Ow," Tsukasa muttered, and in a mere moment she was greeted with the presence of two boys, hovering over her.</p><p>      "Are you alright?" the first boy asked, and he had dark, short, spikey hair while the other one was slightly shorter with longer hair in a ponytail. They both had dark eyes, but the boy with the ponytail had noticeably deep tear-troughs underneath his eyes. They rang a familiar bell with her, and she slightly mused his face in her head.</p><p>      The spikey haired boy offered his hand, and she gave it a once over before she allowed him to help her up. "Fine," Tsukasa answered, staring back up to the kunai that remained at the top of the tree. A scowl formed on her lips before it went back to normal.</p><p>      "You fell pretty far." The spikey haired boy seemed unsure, and she wasn't surprised since she probably looked like she was five years old at most. <em>Tsukasa's body certainly took its time to grow. I'll say that much.</em></p><p>      "Slight concussion, probably," Tsukasa answered, turning to look at both of them.</p><p>      "I noticed that when you were climbing, your Chakra flickered on and off," the tear-trough boy said, and she noticed he couldn't be more than 6 years old, maybe 7.</p><p>      "How?" Tsukasa asked, turning her body to look at both of them.</p><p>      The tear-trough boy's eyes suddenly turned red, with a single black tomoe. Tsukasa raised a brow, finally remembering his face, "You're Itachi Uchiha," she said without thinking, and the boys looked surprised. She slightly chided her mouth as she stared at the future criminal.</p><p>      "Wow! Are we both so well known?" The spikey haired boy grinned, as if he was happy for that fact. "I'm sure you know my name!"</p><p>      Tsukasa shrugged, and he looked visibly disappointed which she was vaguely amused at, but she didn't make that fact known. Itachi's lips formed a gentle smile as he pat the slightly older boy's back.</p><p>      "I'm Shisui Uchiha!" The boy's previous moment of depression immediately vanished, and was replaced by an excited, burning passion. "Don't forget it!" He pointed straight at her, and she could almost see the shadow of Itachi Uchiha cloud over him. Tsukasa imagined it must be difficult to be a friend of a prodigy. She remembered, albeit it was a vague recollection of a past life, but the girls her age had always spoke fondly of the Uchiha prodigy. She was once only slightly older than Sasuke, so she vaguely remembered Itachi picking his brother up in the past. And then she graduated and he killed his clan. It was all very fuzzy back then, especially since she was more interested in boys than one dead clan.</p><p>      Tsukasa glanced away from Shisui, and controlled her Chakra into a ball.</p><p>      "Hey! Don't ignore me!" Shisui snapped, but she didn't look at him, instead her eyes scanned Itachi.</p><p>      "Is it still flickering?" Tsukasa asked, and Itachi tilted his head, obviously noticing the sudden discolor of her skin, but he didn't say anything about it. Still, the fact that it was flickering on and off like a light switch would explain why she had to overcompensate and use more Chakra to make up for the lost amount. Thus, by the time she managed to get anything done, she was depleted.</p><p>      "Yes," he answered, his Sharingan deactivated a moment later and she nodded.</p><p>      "That sucks," she murmured, glancing back up at the kunai, and it started to feel much farther away.</p><p>      Shisui was still as stone looking, almost, physically offended at her obvious lack of recognition of his presence. She didn't make his inferiority complex her problem, so she continued to ignore his annoyance.</p><p>     "Your amount of Chakra that you emit is impressive for your age, but the way I see it, you have no control of how much you input, making it fluctuate constantly. Thus you run out when you input too much to use a Jutsu," Itachi explained, and Tsukasa was slightly impressed that someone so young could come to that conclusion by looking at it for less than a minute.</p><p>     "I have the Sharingan too," Shisui whined, and Tsukasa glanced his way.</p><p>      "So does many of the Uchiha. You're not special. What do you want? A medal?" Tsukasa asked, and his lips formed a grin, obviously not affected by her insult as he placed an arm around her shoulders.</p><p>      "Now you get it. Cower in my greatness," Shisui said with a grin as the force of his arm around her shoulders slightly sunk her feet into the dirt.</p><p>      "Get off," she ordered in a monotone.</p><p>      "Not until I get my medal," he replied, and Itachi let out another gentle smile.</p><p>
  <em>      I should shove that medal up your ass.</em>
</p><p>       "How about we spar? If you beat me, I'll..." Shisui broke off, his lips pouting as he tried to think. "I'll buy you food."</p><p>       "What do I get out of this?" Tsukasa muttered, as she wasn't exactly looking forward to spending time with him long enough to get this supposed food.</p><p>      One thing she noticed, was that neither of them made any note of the bandage over her right eye.</p><p>      "You get food and my presence," Shisui said with a grin.</p><p>      "Shisui," Itachi warned, but Shisui's grin didn't fade.</p><p>     "Worry not, Itachi, I'm just going to make her remember me," Shisui said simply, and she finally nodded.</p><p>      "Fine." He immediately got into position and she noticed that his form was flawless. She had graduated in the past and knew enough Taijutsu to tell that his stance was perfect.</p><p>      Still, by the way his eyes scanned over her, she could tell he wasn't going to go easy even if the only knowledge he had on her was that she couldn't use Chakra well enough. Tsukasa didn't comment on this as she merely stood straight, almost bored and waiting for him to attack. She hadn't even said she would spar, and here he was with such an expectant face.</p><p>      Not to mention he had the advantage of having two eyes, "No Sharingan," she slowly said. Tsukasa could tell that Itachi was used to Shisui's attitude, and made no cover of his exasperated smile. From what she remembered of Itachi in the past, his smile had always been strained, but the boy next to her seemed free in a way that didn't fit her memory. As for Shisui, she only had a vague memory of him, and mostly it was of his suicide that became the gossip of the village when she turned 8. After the Uchiha massacre, gossip about the deaths became the talk of the village until she couldn't turn a fucking corner without hearing the name 'Uchiha'.</p><p>      "I don't need it," he said with a grin, and after that there was no more hesitation, as Shisui's body spiraled in a swarm of leaves before disappearing. She didn't have too much time to act as he appeared behind her, and slammed his fist into her back, throwing her forward.</p><p>      She always had a an advantage of speed, making it hard to actually be caught off guard for long, and like a cat she landed on one hand, flipping backwards until she was on my feet again. It would have been annoying if she had decided to wear her clan's more appropriate dress ware, as it never did to well in the Taijutsu factor. There were too many sleeves and too much of a drag on the material. The moment Tsukasa saw what Kira had thrown in her closet, she immediately tossed it out of her room, partially because they were ugly, and partially because seeing her scowl was the highlight of her day.</p><p>      She had grown sort of attached to the outfits she had gotten during her adventures, as they were practical and limber. Easy to move in and most of all, they covered her body in thin black spandex that didn't reveal her skin, but also wasn't too hot. She also never had a liking to open toed shoes during <em>both</em> her lives, but it was hard to get much options at her age. So eventually she settled on flexible shoes that would allow her feet to curve, but not break against rock or other sharp objects. Being the paranoid soul that she was, she made sure to get the ones that tied in ribbons up her calf.</p><p>     Overall, it was the flexibility of her clothes that allowed her to appear nimble in the face of adversity.</p><p>      Admittedly, Shisui's Jutsu had caught her off guard, as teleportation was advanced and now she had a bruise on her lower back from his punch to remind her. But, his actions allowed for a memory of the great Uchiha Shisui to surface in her mind. She hadn't labeled him as important when she saw him, but eventually the name 'Shisui of the Body Flicker' came darting in her mind.</p><p>      "Shunshin no Jutsu?" She murmured in a low tone, watching as his lips curved in a grin. Even Kira was sloppy with her own body flickers, often tripping upon the landing. Shisui's was very well done, managing to hit Tsukasa on his way back. Tsukasa jumped back, her eyes narrowing on him as he rushed forward with impressive speed. It was only when he was halfway near her, that his body flickered once more.</p><p>      She raised a brow, feeling his presence behind her. His fist came straight for her back, and she fell forward before he could touch her, flipping onto the ground and landing on her feet, spinning to face him once more. Her face remained impassive long enough to see his eyes slightly narrow in surprise.</p><p>     "That was impressive..." Shisui mumbled, as if he didn't like giving her credit. "Your reflexes avoided the hit at the last second...you're fast."</p><p>     Tsukasa saw Itachi's Sharingan activated from the corner of her eyes, and her shoulders shrugged.</p><p>      "Fast enough," came her monotone response as she straightened. "Your Shunshin is good...but limited...you don't have enough Chakra to go far."</p><p>     "Enough to beat you," he said with a competitive grin that caused her brows to raise as his body flickered and darted in front of her. Her reflexes were better, as Taijutsu was all she worked on these last seven years, from the moment she could walk. It was the only thing she could be sure wouldn't drain her Chakra and kill her. A 3 year old practicing Ninjutsu could get said toddler killed with her lack of developed Chakra reserves.</p><p>      She ducked under his fist, her body kneeling as she twisted her leg under his feet, which he surprisingly jumped over and flipped behind her. She placed her hands flat on the ground behind her, before flipping her body backwards, and twisting her body to face him before she wrapped her legs around his waist. Her hands instantly wrapped around his wrist as she squeezed her legs around his stomach hard enough to make him look physically winded while his back hit the ground and she sent a pulse of Chakra, strong yet flickering, into his body from her palms before striking his chest, square in the middle.</p><p>      His fingers twitched while his eyes widened as she all but sat on his waist.</p><p>      He was slightly breathing hard, most likely from the Shunshin that took up too much of his Chakra. She hadn't broke much of a sweat, but there was a tiny flush of exhaustion on her cheeks as she jumped off him, unofficially calling it my win.</p><p>      "You fight like a cat," Shisui said, still laying on the ground, stunned that he lost and she was starting to think he had been beating kids so often that he didn't take defeat so well.</p><p>      "You are quick. Your punches are strong, but your body flicker Jutsu isn't ready for combat. It wears down your Chakra too much," she said, and his laugh startled her.</p><p>      "I guess you were right, Itachi!" Shisui jumped up onto his feet, rubbing his wrists with a good-natured smile.</p><p>      "Told you," Itachi said with a gentle smile.</p><p>      "Well, you kicked my ass, so I'll accept your criticism. You're reflexes are near flawless, but your Chakra control <em>is</em> pretty crappy," Shisui commented, and she found herself slightly offended, especially since she had been a medical prodigy in her last life. <em>My Chakra control had been the best in the class.</em></p><p>      Izana Chakra was bullshit. <em>And so was a weakling like Haruno Sakura getting trained by a legendary Sannin like Tsunade just because she was associated with the Kyuubi boy.</em></p><p>      <em>Where did that come from? </em>Grudges from a past life are ridiculous and yet followed her soul like a lost limb. <em>You may not have it anymore, but you will never forget it's there</em>.</p><p>      "It flares out in strong waves, but then it kinda feels like a tickle due to it turning off just as fast," Shisui said with a smile as he placed his arms down to his sides.</p><p>     "A tickle?" Tsukasa murmured, and it was difficult not to be annoyed, but she said nothing about it. There were times when she could control it perfectly, but most times it flared out and exhausted her. When she was younger, she figured that she would grow into it, but four years later and she was still lacking.</p><p>      "But the spar was super fun!" Shisui said, scratching his head with an even larger smile. "I have to admit...I'm a little pissed that you beat me." She had a feeling that he only ever got beaten by Itachi, as her memory of the academy days were hazy, but no one ever fought like he did. She may have been excellent at medicine and Chakra in her last lifetime, but in no ways had she been a fighter.</p><p>
  <em>      That was why I died last. Medics usually do.</em>
</p><p>      "Well, that's 1 to 0. I'll get you next time," Shisui said, his voice nonchalant.</p><p>      "Next time?" Tsukasa asked, as she hadn't realized she had just entered some kind of childish rivalry. Still, the moment she saw Shisui's smug smirk, she begun to think that he wasn't giving her a choice.</p><p>     "Well, can't let the scoreboard stay this way. What would my admirers say?" Shisui said with a smirk and Itachi turned his head, as if to hide a smile. Shisui didn't miss it. "Screw you, Itachi."</p><p>     Itachi glanced his way, his face composed as he tilted his head to the side. His eyes held an almost playful edge, despite his composed face.</p><p>      "So, what class you in? I've never seen you at the academy." Shisui stated, and she blinked.</p><p>      "I don't go to the academy," she said simply.</p><p>     "You're not gonna be a ninja?" Shisui's face held a disappointed frown and she shrugged.</p><p>      "My clan does not go to the academy. We are merchants," Tsukasa said, and now that she said it out loud, the thought put yet another sense that something she was doing wasn't right.</p><p>      "So what? You gonna sell flowers for a living?" Shisui's voice sounded sort of offended and Itachi's lips contorted in a frown.</p><p>      "Shisui," Itachi warned.</p><p>      "Come on, 'tachi, that sucks. She's obviously got potential." Shisui turned towards her, his eyes quite intense. "And I saw your face when you were fighting. You liked it," Shisui's voice was starting to be the one of reason, as she hadn't thought exactly about her future. <em>I guess I had focused so much on not wanting to repeat Kunoichi classes that I hadn't really put much thought on anything</em>. Izana weren't ninja. We were swindlers and killers and merchants.</p><p>      She had decided instead on going through the motions, not much caring about her own thoughts and desires.</p><p>      Being angry for so many years didn't do much for her personality, or rather, lack of said personality. But Shisui was right. <em>I do like fighting.</em></p><p>      What was she to become? Would she follow the memory of Tsukasa's path of murder and horror? She knew she wasn't Misaki anymore, but she damn well would not be <em>her </em>either.</p><p>     "Anyway, I promised you food." Shisui's grin was back, but she didn't smile back.</p><p>     "You never gave us your name," Itachi said, his kind voice cutting into the silence.</p><p>      "Izana Tsukasa." She saw them tense at the mention of her name, but for young kids, they composed themselves so fast that she barely caught a flicker of what looked to be...</p><p>     Recognition. <em>Ah. That's right. </em>The Uchiha clan hasn't been massacred yet, so there was nothing to shadow over the tragedy of the Izana clan.</p><p>     Not to mention, how could the Uchiha not know about it. Their compound was next to ours, and they ran the police force who would obviously have been at the scene. She couldn't exactly remember who showed up, Anbu or Uchiha, for she had just gotten her eye gorged out. She had neither the heart nor the resistance to pain at such a young age.</p><p>     Fear was the only thing that allowed her to live that night.</p><p>     And now the lack of fear kept her breathing.</p><p>    Every big clan eventually lives with a stain on their name or some sort of event that ruins their reputation, and the Izana had had their own share. Tsukasa could see in that fleeting expression that passed over the two Uchiha prodigies, that her stain, however brief, now covered her in darkness.</p><p>      Despite this, Shisui's arm went around her shoulders, making her body tense.</p><p>      "Well, Tsukasa, time to make good on our deal," Shisui said, and Itachi smiled.</p><p>     "A loss is a loss," Itachi said, and his voice was free of judgment.</p><p>     And because of this, she began to see these two, highly intelligent boys, in a slightly different light. Itachi's eyes were much kinder than the boy she remembered from her days in Academy, and much kinder than that Akatsuki member she had seen in the village, one lifetime ago.</p><p>     "Get off me," Tsukasa ordered, her eye narrowed on Shisui's arm.</p><p>     "Come on, Tsukasa, lighten up," came Shisui's retort, obviously not bothered by her tone.</p><p>       <em>Be bothered, damn it.</em></p><p>     Her brows furrowed together as he all but dragged her away from the training ground. Whether or not Itachi was following, she wasn't sure, as she wasn't able to sense his presence nor hear his steps, despite the fact that the fallen leaves of Winter had covered the ground in a noisy mess.</p><p>      She didn't hear him walk next to her until she physically saw him, which was an impressive skill considering just how much she honed her senses. If she could never be good at Ninjutsu, she was determined to be good at everything else. She raised a brow as he handed her the kunai that she had thrown 9 meters up a tree. It had still been up there when Shisui had dragged her away a mere 15 seconds ago, but now, there it was in Itachi's hand.</p><p>      From just this small action, a mere 6 year old managed to impress her to the point where she could actually tolerate Shisui's arm around her shoulders.</p><p>     Itachi was strong...probably stronger than me, despite her head start in life and despite her intelligence. This 6 year old could probably win. Tsukasa's eyes met his in that moment, and for that instant, she knew that it was true.</p><p>
  <em>      So this was what a prodigy looked like. A true fighting genius.</em>
</p><p>      Her lips formed into the first expression she had shown to either of these boys. A smirk. It was weak and almost immediately disappeared.</p><p>      Yes.</p><p>     Maybe being a ninja wouldn't be so bad if she could fight alongside these impressive boys.</p><p>
  <em>      Fuck the Izana clan.</em>
</p><p>═════ °• ♔ •° ═════</p><p>      "You want to go to academy?" Asa asked, and her voice was filled with disgust as she stared her sister down. Tsukasa could also taste her own minor disgust at the thought. She had no particular loyalty to her clan, so Asa's growing disappointment didn't mean much to Tsukasa. "Why?"</p><p>      Tsukasa didn't see why not. It wasn't like Branch one really needed another hand. After her father slaughtered half their clan's forces, business had only gone up and their wealth actually rose.</p><p>      "I want to be a Shinobi," Tsukasa said, her voice conveying no emotion as she sat across from her sister. Asa was in a lazy and opened legged Agura position, with her legs folded in a crisscross. Tsukasa stuck to the seiza position, with her butt against her heels, as she had no interest in such an unfeminine position as Asa had no trouble in sitting.</p><p>     "Gross," the word rolled off Asa's tongue like poison, and Tsukasa could fully tell that she meant it. "No."</p><p>      "Yes."</p><p>      "I am your official guardian. I say no. End of story," her voice was harsh, cutting to the chase and looking at Tsukasa as if she grew two heads. "In fact, get the hell out."</p><p>      "No," Tsukasa said simply. She knew that Asa was the authority of the Izana clan after their mother's death, but she didn't actually care.</p><p>      Asa looked exasperated as she lifted her dish of sake and rose it to her lips, as if she had lost complete interest in her sister. "Why? Make your case."</p><p>     "Because I want to."</p><p>     "The Izana clan doesn't play on wants," she said simply, her eyes darting to the side and meeting Tsukasa's blank gaze. "We don't play on dreams. How can you being a Shinobi benefit us? While I admit, it's an amusing anecdote, that's as far as it is. I don't fully see any benefit to you becoming a ninja. For Gods sake, Kasa."</p><p>     "Tsukasa," Tsukasa corrected, and she waved me off.</p><p>      "Whatever, I reject. Fuck off," she said simply, and her tone made it clear that she lost complete interest.</p><p>     "What if I make it into Anbu?" Tsukasa asked, her voice dropping and Asa's eye twitched as she slowly met the younger girl's gaze again.</p><p>      "They don't let Izana into Anbu black ops."</p><p>     "I have been gone, away from the compound, for years. I am barely considered an Izana anymore," Tsukasa replied, and Asa leaned forward, raising her right leg and resting her arm on her knee. "I can renounce the clan. It happens often enough in many small clans around Konoha. I have no attachments and I can enter the academy under no official obligations to you."</p><p>      "You thought about this quite a bit."</p><p>     "For an entire five minutes," Tsukasa answered honestly and Asa suddenly laughed.</p><p>      "Konoha and the Izana have always been at odds, but we bring in a lot of commerce from foreign lands. We make up much of Konoha's income," Asa stated, but her voice was cold. "But lately, it's felt like we've been under surveillance. It's quite annoying, but you think you can get into Anbu."</p><p>     "If I am strong enough. I am sure I can."</p><p>     "What's in it for you?"</p><p>     "Amusement. Shits and giggles to be honest."</p><p>     "I admit, you aren't the weakest in our clan, but I don't think you have what it takes to get far in rank due to your name. Lately, the security of the Izana compound has felt more tightly guarded. It seems they think we are into illegal business," she scoffed, as if it were stupid, even though Izana were always in the business that went against Konoha's laws. "It's because of Namikaze Minato. The Third would have stayed clear, but this new Hokage is very unlikely to keep his nose out our business. If you make it to the higher ups, I want information among other things."</p><p>      "Whatever you want." </p><p>     "But, Tsukasa, I won't wait forever. If you don't make it by the time I get impatient, I'll assume I put my time in the wrong sister." She took another sip of her sake. "Do you know where I'm getting at? I'm threatening you, sis. I'll give six years. I want results. I want information. I want a new fancy comb." Asa smiled, running her fingers through her hair. "Do you understand, Tsukasa?"</p><p>      Tsukasa tilted her head, still finding her sister absolutely repulsive. "Whatever you want." <em>I've died once. Maybe next time death will reincarnate me into Asa's body as some kind of sick joke again</em>. The idea almost made me want to smile.</p><p>     "You'll be starting the academy early, Kasa," Asa said, and this time she used the nickname to mock her sister. "You think you can graduate in the next upcoming test?"</p><p>
  <em>     I've done it before. What more can they teach me that I didn't already know?</em>
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  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Noge means to 'go under'.</p><p>Tsukasa doesn't really remember much about Konoha's secrets, as opposed to many Naruto rebirth stories where the character has watched Naruto and knows a lot of what's to happen. Misaki, when she was alive, was a very popular girl who loved to gossip and had a lot of friends. What she knows is gossip, so not all her information will probably be accurate and much of it will be biased and probably bordering prejudice because of all the discrimination that was piled on the Uchiha clan.</p><p>I hope everyone will like and support the story.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Slurvish</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>CHAPTER FOUR<br/>-•-<br/>SLURVISH</p><p>
  
</p><p>      <b>IN THE WEST THEY HAD A SAYING: FAMILY IS WHO YOU CHOOSE. </b>Personally, Tsukasa would sooner choose a hamster to love than she ever would a single member of the Izana clan. So the bureaucratic process of separating from said clan was trying, but not at all hard for her to accept. It took three weeks, five death threats (curtesy of Kira), and a complete removal of her privileges of even entering the Izana complex without permission. There had been talk of officially taking away her last name as Izana, which Tsukasa didn't even fight for, but Asa eventually refuted the statements and allowed her to continue calling herself Izana. Tsukasa wasn't sure, nor did she care, about the pride of her name, but all the branches agreed that the name would be stripped away eventually (<em>if I marry someone but fuck that</em>) so they didn't bother.</p><p>     Using the claims of 'unstable environment' was easy as Tsukasa had one lack of eye to allow her to easily sway my statement.</p><p>      Overall, it was a very boring, troublesome three weeks. Tsukasa had been expecting an orphanage, but Minato had come to an agreement that upon being enrolled in the academy, a small allocation of funds could be set aside as sponsoring her growth on the grounds for her service into the Shinobi ranks. Still, afterwards when she was alone in her new apartment and not an orphanage, she felt free in a way she hadn't ever before. It wasn't a horrible feeling, to be without a family, especially since she never considered them family anyway.</p><p>      She was disappointed that she lost much of her source to information about controlling her unique Chakra, but she figured that, like everything else, she'd get the hang of it eventually on her own. She knew nearly everything about Chakra control exercises, so it shouldn't be long that the answers came to her.</p><p>      Tsukasa didn't feel much of anything when she walked up to the academy's large, double doors. Her arms hung lazily at her sides as she lightly kicked them open and walked down the polished halls. They didn't look much different from the last time she had been here, many years in my past and the same signature of Chakra dusted over the halls in a small display of protective energy. It felt slightly stronger than the times when she had been a student, as all seals faded with time.</p><p>      Tsukasa's feet remembered the way for her and she lazily opened the door to the classroom, feeling the eyes of many students turn to look upon her as she disrupted the class, an hour into lecture. She could tell her interruption pissed off the sensei that she didn't recognize. Tsukasa didn't know when Iruka had taken over, but she figured it had to be quite an amount of years later so the man in front of her either became a Jounin or dies. Maybe both.</p><p>      He was obviously not happy with how late she was, which meant that they were both unhappy at her presence here. Tsukasa didn't try to make it unknown that she didn't care of his scowl as he stood, hand in mid air with a piece of chalk hovering over the board.</p><p>      Tsukasa immediately attempted to sit in a random seat, an obvious effort to get out of the introductions.</p><p>      "Oh no you don't," the man said, grabbing her by the back of her shirt and yanking her next to him. If she had more of a sense of humor, she might have found the action funny, but since she didn't, it was just annoying. He had a kind face, she supposed, and was tan with his black hair tied into a ponytail that was short and scruffy. His Hitai-ate was around his neck, which she always found to be an annoying place for a headband. "Class, this is Izana Tsukasa. She's going to be starting class along with everyone else and she's obviously <em>late</em>." His narrowed eyes were directed at her, and she heard the echo of snickering in the classroom.</p><p>      Tsukasa blinked, staring blankly at the class before finally resting her eye on the two Uchiha boys that she had met four weeks prior. Their eyes were on her and she mused the thought of waving before deciding against it and glancing back towards the teacher who still held her shirt in his hand.</p><p>      She could have probably gotten out of his grip, but such an action would probably get her in more trouble that she would rather skip. Instead, she tucked a strand of orange hair behind her ear as she waited for him to release her.</p><p>      "Tsukasa-san, introduce yourself," he ordered and she resisted the urge to sigh at her failure at skipping introductions.</p><p>      "I'm Tsukasa," she said simply, and attempted to walk, but his surprisingly strong grip pulled her back.</p><p>      "Very funny. An actual introduction," he ordered and she erased the expression that almost gave away her annoyance.</p><p>      "I'm Izana Tsukasa." She paused, and he obviously wasn't pleased, but when he saw that she wasn't getting any chattier, his face immediately changed to exasperation.</p><p>      "Fine. Any questions," he asked the class, just as she attempted to get away. Tsukasa was starting to think that this was her punishment for being late.</p><p>      "What happened to your eye?"</p><p>      "Why do you have only one eye?"</p><p>     "Do you know you only have one eye?"</p><p>     The simultaneous barrage of questions all sounded the same, and she for one found that each one only got more stupid. In response to them, she shrugged and the teacher seemed to take pity on her and allowed her to sit down.</p><p>      If there had been a free seat next to either Shisui or Itachi, she would have taken it, but two girls who continuously tried to get their attention filled the seats. It didn't particularly matter who she sat by, so she took a random empty seat in the middle, next to some guy with a trench coat that had a collar that covered most of the bottom half of his face. She sighed, leaning back and catching sight of a beetle slithering out of his sleeve.</p><p>      "Fuck that" Tsukasa muttered so lowly that it was unlikely anyone could hear it. She stood and moved three seats away, much to the teacher's annoyance and the bug kid's sadness. Neither fazed her.</p><p>      "Alright. Now that the interruptions are through," the teacher's gaze turned pointed on Tsukasa, although she was fairly certain that he was the one who made the interruption longer than necessary.</p><p>      He obviously wasn't happy with the fact that she didn't take notes as he went over the kanji lectures and their significance in seals, but since it was her first day he didn't say anything while she observed the classroom.</p><p>     Genin tests would take place in roughly three months, so she had three months to observe the class's scores and figure out how well she was going to do on the many tests that were to come.</p><p>     It had always been an unspoken rule that the two top students would be paired with the bottom student, so it was a matter of observing who was the bottom student. If the Uchiha prodigies were anything like Sasuke, Tsukasa assumed they were at the top of the class.</p><p>      She had no interest in getting teamed up with the any weaklings that surrounded her, and with one wrong move she'd be forced to.</p><p>      "Tsukasa-chan?" whispered the voice of a girl next to Tsukasa, her black hair and pupil-less eyes practically screamed Hyūga to me. The girl had a soft voice and she would have missed the fact that she spoke at all if she hadn't been so close. Tsukasa didn't question that oddly familiar honorific, even if it was strange how familiar people had been referring to her lately. She supposed that Konoha hadn't been strictly known for excessive use on honorifics, and that was the choice of most the ninja who did so drop titles, since it was a pain in the ass. "Do you need a notebook?" She obviously found Tsukasa's lack of note-taking to be troubling, even though it really wasn't her business.</p><p>      Tsukasa supposed the academy students always were nosy, and she remembered specifically that as Misaki, she had been very talkative and curious about everyone else's business. As Tsukasa, she obviously didn't seem very unapproachable, especially since they were all so young. Most wouldn't be able to pass the Genin exam until they were older, but it was held every year for kids to attempt (and mostly fail) it. Tsukasa planned on getting the hell out of here as quickly as possible, but at the same time as the two Uchiha boys. Happy thoughts like that were what kept her going.</p><p>     "Nah," was all she said as she watched Umino-sensei, who she found out was Iruka's father, write different kanji on the board. They were simple ones like '子' or '封', nothing she didn't already know. Many kids in the back weren't taking notes, such as Itachi and Shisui, but since they weren't new students, no one cared.</p><p>      The only thing that excessive knowledge of kanji even applied in the world of ninja was with Fūinjutsu, and such required an almost innate talent that she was fairly certain only 8 percent of ninja could even succeed at. <em>God knows I had tried, so long ago.</em> Sealing arts required an imagination that bordered on genius. Being reborn didn't give Tsukasa much help in Fūinjutsu.</p><p>      Tsukasa couldn't say it didn't give her anything, but without proper control of her Chakra, sealing Jutsu would be useless, even if she could make the signs.</p><p>      There were only two great Fūinjutsu users in the Fire country that got even recognized, and that was the Fourth Hokage and the Toad Sage. And neither seemed to regularly take up students. Tsukasa wasn't sure she would even want to be their students, since people trained by them had a tendency to die. Common rumors spread that they were cursed.</p><p>      When the teacher called for a break, his loud voice and the voices of the students broke Tsukasa out of her thoughts as kids began to flood outside for their 30-minute break. I didn't have much time to so much as move until she found herself surrounded by students.</p><p>     "Tsukasa, do you wanna hang out with us?" asked on of them, and her gaze met his before she recognized his voice as the one who asked 'do you know you are missing an eye'. The comment was so stupid that she almost broke her own composure to call him out on it.</p><p>      "No," Tsukasa replied, waiting for them to leave so she could stand or even get a moment's worth of peace.</p><p>      "Come on, it will be fun!" asked another.</p><p>      After five minutes of saying 'no', they seemed to finally take the hint that she didn't want to play with them, and they walked out, dejected.</p><p>      She didn't get a minute to myself before the seat to the left and right of her was occupied by both Uchiha.</p><p>      "I thought you said you weren't going to academy," Shisui asked, his arm wrapping around her shoulder in a friendly gesture that she found too troublesome to dodge.</p><p>      "Changed my mind," she replied, and he grinned.</p><p>      "That's great. We'll be Genin together then?" Shisui asked and Tsukasa shrugged.</p><p>      "Will you be taking the Genin test?" Itachi asked, and she blinked.</p><p>      "Will you?" Tsukasa asked in return and Shisui's grin widened.</p><p>      "We're more than ready," came Shisui's answer. "I would have taken it last year but..." Tsukasa didn't miss the glance towards Itachi that he spared, causing Tsukasa to look in between the two. <em>So you stayed behind to be on the same team as him. Why bother?</em></p><p>     "I see," Tsukasa replied, and she felt Shisui get closer.</p><p>      "With your strength, you'll probably do pretty well, but who knows," he replied, and she didn't very much care for his statement as she had been the top student before dying. It certainly hurt her pride that I was going to have to purposefully fail all the makeup tests now and just barely pass the ninja exam.</p><p>      "Will you be ready in time?" Itachi's smile was kind, unlike Shisui's, who continuously sought for her offense. It was almost like he was trying to pick a fight.</p><p>      "Probably," Tsukasa answered, lazily placing her shoes against the desk as she attempted to shrug off Shisui's arm again. "I doubt I'll do as well as you two, but even if I'm dead last, if I do the practical correctly, becoming Genin is rather easy." It was keeping the title of Genin that could prove to be tricky, depending on the Jounin she got stuck with. God knows she could do without Hatake Kakashi, as she was still fairly certain that she <em>hated</em> that guy. Once you're failed by Hatake once and forced back into the academy, it was hard to forget the man who did that.</p><p>      Last time, Tsukasa was lucky as all her first sensei wanted in a team was stamina and some stupid lesson on never giving up. She supposed the lessons in teamwork came later, but her teammates weren't difficult, if she didn't count Shion's intense level of arrogance and Hikaru's idiocy, up until they went and died. <em>Technically, it was my fault, and now that I was in the body of their killer...well, it was even more my fault.</em></p><p>      "Wanna make a bet? I bet that I'll do better on the practical than you," came Shisui's claim, making a bet happen before Tsukasa even agreed. Judging by his tone, it seemed like <em>yes</em>, she was officially apart of some childish rivalry.</p><p>      "I want money this time, not food," Tsukasa said slowly.</p><p>      "Stingy," Shisui said with a pout. "But food means we spend time together, money means you just walk away."</p><p>      "That's the point," Tsukasa said simply, and she heard Itachi let out a chuckle from next to her.</p><p>      "That's not very nice, Tsukasa. You're much ruder than you look," Shisui whined.</p><p>     "I'm not forcing you to stay," she replied, <em>at least not yet</em>.</p><p>     "You brushed off everyone else, but you haven't actually told us to go away," Shisui said, facing her as he energetically sat on the desk. His eyes connected with Itachi, and both looked amused. "I think she actually likes our company, what do you think, Itachi?"</p><p>      "I think sensei is going to yell at you," Itachi replied simply, and Shisui made a motion to retort, but was interrupted by an annoyed scolding.</p><p>      "Shisui, for the last time, no sitting on the god damn desks," came Umino-sensei's exclaim, pounding off the walls.</p><p>     "Come on sensei, it's not like they'll break," Shisui whined, but got off nonetheless.</p><p>      "If I did tell you to go away, would you even listen?" Tsukasa asked, and Shisui settled for leaning against the desk instead.</p><p>       "Nah. Where else am I going to find another person to annoy?"</p><p>     "You annoy me pretty well," Itachi commented, but his voice held no conviction.</p><p>     Their lively banter filled her ears, but it didn't really bother her. She didn't really care who they were as people, and the only thing she could really think about was a team that would get her stronger. Whether or not they could fit her goal, she supposed only time would tell. What really stuck with her was they were what she felt she needed. They had, Shisui on a more vocal level, conviction and ambition that Tsukasa had a hard time feeling, so they could push her to reach towards a goal she knew she once wanted. </p><p>     It would also be greatly appreciated if they wouldn't die either.</p><p>
  <em>     The last thing I needed was more dead teammates.</em>
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<a name="section0006"><h2>6. BOROGOVE</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>CHAPTER FIVE<br/>-•-<br/>BOROGOVE</p><p>
  
</p><p><br/>      <b>"YOU WON'T GET ANYWHERE IN TRAINING IF YOU DO NOTHING,</b>" Shisui commented, causing Tsukasa to glance towards him and try to contain the murderous desire to smash his face into the ground. "O-Okay, you don't have to do the exercise...you can just sit there all alone."</p><p>      She was still fairly certain she hated Uchiha Shisui as the loudmouth boy was always an annoying pest, but she said nothing about the annoyances on the simple grounds that she was beginning to believe the kid wouldn't listen to her regardless.</p><p>      "Tsukasa-san, you have to do the exercises as well." Umino's voice was annoying as well, and for a teacher, she had her doubts that he'd live much longer considering she couldn't remember even the murmur of his name from her time as Misaki.  "Run laps," he ordered.</p><p>
  <em>      I hope he runs laps in hell.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>      I am Izana Tsukasa. I don't run.</em>
</p><p>      Also, she was incredibly lazy and just ate an entire barbecue plate this morning after her exercises. It was a weird breakfast, but she couldn't help but crave what she craved.</p><p>      "Nah. Sick," was her response as she continued to read from her textbook, finding the history of Konoha to be quite boring, but at least it gave her a vague idea of the timeline on what has happened and what has yet to happen.</p><p>     Umino sent her a furious glance as the other students, who she found some were years older than her, continued sending her scowls as they ran their punishment laps around the school. It was a rather annoying new development of having everyone run all because one student failed their practicals.</p><p>      She was certain there was a life lesson in the whole 'if one fails, we all fail' kind of mindset, but she didn't care enough to question it.</p><p>     "Do you want to be kicked out?" Umino asked as she turned a page.</p><p>      Slowly, she brought her eye up towards his with a calm blink as she raised an innocent brow past her orange bangs. "Nah. I'm good. By all means, don't let me keep you from running too sensei."</p><p>      Umino went silent as she went back to her book.</p><p>     She found out later not to sass a teacher after he assigned her loads of homework that looked to be the entirety of all the schoolwork that an academy student usually completed by this time in their schooling days.</p><p>      It was all mind numbingly redundant and easy, but there was so much that she <em>knew </em>shewould have to pull an all nighter to finish.</p><p>      "You have a week," Umino had said with a smirk so smug that she began to wonder if the reason he doesn't make it as a teacher in the future was because she kills him right now.</p><p><em>     This was probably one of my worst punishments</em>, Tsukasa realized as soon as she got home.</p><p>     "That's a lot of homework," Shisui commented and she glanced up from her bed to see Shisui leaning near her window.</p><p>      "How do you know where I live?" Tsukasa asked as she glanced up at him and he opened her window as if he owned the place.</p><p>      "I followed you home a couple nights ago," Shisui said simply, and the statement came out so nonchalant, almost like he didn't just admit to stalking her.</p><p>     "That's rather creepy," she admitted, going back to her work without a care in the world.</p><p>      "I had to know the whereabouts of my rival if I ever wanted to challenge you. So here I am. Challenging you," he stated with a grin as he glanced around, taking small steps around the room.</p><p>      "I reject. Get out," she said simply, continuing to write down the entire history of the previous Hokages along with their achievements and reforms throughout the village. History was never something she enjoyed as Misaki, so having to go through it again was making her sick to her stomach with boredom. She didn't give a damn who established the ninja academy, the Konoha Police Force, and the Anbu black ops. <em>Isn't the most important thing is that we have them? Who cares that the Second Hokage is responsible.</em></p><p>      She must have been bored, considering she actually <em>hesitated</em> before rejecting Shisui's invitation.</p><p>      "Okay, obviously you misunderstand. You don't get a choice," Shisui stated simply.</p><p>      "Obviously <em>you</em> don't know the definition of challenge. Get out," Tsukasa answered in reply.</p><p>      "Do you realize you only have a bed in the apartment," Shisui stated, and she sighed.</p><p>      "No. I didn't notice." She slowly realized that her sarcasm didn't match her flat tone.</p><p>     "You are super boring Tsukasa. Admit it, you need me," Shisui said with a grin, smacking her books off her bed.</p><p>      She watched it fall with a blank expression, not caring enough to pick it all up. A part of her wondered if it would have been less irritating to have become an mercenary like the rest of her deranged family.</p><p>     Maybe she could hire one of them to kill Shisui for her and save herself the bother of his presence.</p><p>     "You are <em>super</em> annoying, Uchiha Shisui," Tsukasa retorted and he grinned.</p><p>     "Not nice, Tsu-chan~" he said as he walked towards the window, placing one foot outside. "Let's go fight."</p><p>      "I'm on the eighth floor and there isn't a ladder. How did you get up here anyway?" Tsukasa asked with furrowed brows.</p><p>     "I'll tell you if you fight me~" His attempt at bribery was pathetic.</p><p>      She stood up, dropping her pen on her books as she walked closer towards his form. At her expression, he paled and she noticed his adam's apple bob as he swallowed.</p><p>      "Tsu-chan...what are you doing?" Shisui asked, and she shrugged.</p><p>       "I'm gonna push you out and find the answer for myself," she answered in return, and he quickly raised his hands in defense.</p><p>      "Wait, wait, wait. I was just joking. If I get shoved the wrong way I could die!" Shisui hissed and she shrugged again, pushing him out the window.</p><p>      Just as he began to fall, his fingers coiled around her wrist so tightly that she immediately lost her childish footing. She felt her hip scrape against the window frame on her way out.</p><p>      "I-Idiot!" Tsukasa muttered out as she fell with him. He was grinning all the way, and just before they were about to hit the ground, he did a quick Jutsu and gripped her hand. The pressure of a body flicker spread throughout her frame and by the time she blinked, they were standing just outside of the hotel district where her apartment had resided.</p><p>      "I've been practicing since you kicked my ass," Shisui admitted with a sheepish grin. "I can go a little farther out and sometimes take people with me."</p><p>      She paused, noticing his slightly labored breath. "What do you mean sometimes?"</p><p>      "Ah...you picked up on that huh..." he commented, letting out a sheepish laugh.</p><p>      "W-Was I a test?" Tsukasa asked and he laughed again but didn't answer.</p><p>      "Come on, Tsu. I wanted to challenge you. It was you who had to make it difficult." His tone wasn't exactly mocking, but it was amused which contrasted her ever present frown.</p><p>      She slowly reached behind her, causing a flicker of nervousness to blow through his eyes.</p><p>     "Tsu-chan...what are you doing?" He asked, slowly backing away.</p><p>      "I'm gonna test something. Stay still," she replied, taking out a kunai from her weapons pouch and he let out a yelp.</p><p>      "Come on, Tsu-chan, it was just a joke."</p><p>       "Stay <em>still</em>."</p><p>═════ °• ♔ •° ═════</p><p>      "Itachi~" Shisui's voice made Itachi glance up from his training session with his father as he stared at the Uchiha boy who shoved his way past the trees of the training grounds, sporting a forming bruise on his eye. Itachi noticed a book clutched in his hands, finding it odd as Itachi never caught Shisui reading a book.</p><p>     "What's wrong?" Itachi asked, noticing that his father had seen the bruise on Shisui's eye. It was rather rare to see Shisui with an injury, especially one that looked to be the form of a fist and Itachi knew <em>he </em>wasn't the cause since he was never much of a puncher.</p><p>     "Tsukasa just <em>kicked</em> my <em>ass</em>," Shisui complained with a frown, causing Itachi to have to fight back a smirk that wanted to form on his lips.</p><p>      "You let someone beat you," even Itachi's father, Fugaku, sounded amused at the thought as he glanced down at his son with a raised brow.</p><p>     "I didn't <em>let </em>her do anything. I was tired after the body flicker and she's got some ridiculous strength." Shisui's pout was amusing to say the least.</p><p>     "You need more training. This is Izana Tsukasa, is it not." Fugaku's eyes were slightly cold, and he glanced up as though looking back on a memory.</p><p>      "You know of her?" Shisui said with a grin, scratching the back of his neck. "She's rather dull and she never smiles and she only has one eye but she's strong. Right 'tachi?"</p><p>     Itachi shrugged, "She's strong, but this time you were just careless I suspect. On normal grounds, I'd say the both of you have the ability to be on equal footing."</p><p>     "Not everyone can be a perfect prodigy," Shisui grinned. "So I was thinking, I should join your training sessions and maybe I'll be able to beat her without breaking a sweat."</p><p>      Fugaku's gaze of amusement returned, "We were actually just finished."</p><p>      Shisui's gaze soured, "Man. That sucks. I was hoping to perfect my fire technique."</p><p>      Itachi shrugged, "I could train with you you, but I doubt it would help much. Genjutsu utilizes Chakra control far more, and your Body Flicker's main problem is control based on the limitations set upon by how much Chakra you even have."</p><p>      "You hit me where it hurts, Itachi, but just wait. I'm gonna be the fastest in the world soon enough! Enough to match the Fourth Hokage himself."</p><p>      Fugaku chuckled, "Bold words with nothing to back them up, kid."</p><p>      Shisui smirked, "Well, my charm is already matched with the Fourth, so the rest of me is bound to catch up soon enough." Fugaku merely rolled his eyes and body flickered away, causing Shisui to frown. "Show off."</p><p>═════ °• ♔ •° ═════</p><p>      "Shisui. Give me back my book." Tsukasa caught a glimpse of a man body flickering away from where Shisui <em>and</em> Itachi stood, but she ignored it as she set her glare on Shisui's smirking figure.</p><p>      Itachi slowly glanced down at the book in Shisui's had with a raised brow. "You stole from her too?"</p><p>      "I had to send a message," Shisui replied, turning to her, only to be surprised when she was already in front of him with a forming scowl.</p><p>     "Message sent. I'm happy these messages are going back and forth. Now, unless you want to be punched in the eye again, I'd hand the book over," Tsukasa stated, annoyed that her homework session was interrupted and even more annoyed that her textbook was stolen by her stalker.</p><p>      "Oh, then we'll be matching eyes," Shisui said simply, and she raised a brow while Itachi sighed to himself. At this point she wore eye jokes and insults like armor so no one can use them to hurt her.</p><p>      "It was a quiet day, you know," Itachi's mutter was short lived as her lips further engraved into an annoyed scowl.</p><p>      "My day was quiet too," she agreed, glancing between them. "Until a spikey haired idiot strolled into my bedroom and pushed me out of said window."</p><p>      "If you recall, you were the one doing the pushing. And all I wanted was a rematch," Shisui grinned. "If you win, I'll give you back your book. I've been practicing lately. I can take you on."</p><p>      She took a step back, glancing between the two boys. "You are incredibly annoying. Are all Uchiha this annoying?"</p><p>     Itachi's raised brow made her rethink my statement.</p><p>      "Wait..." Shisui paused at the same time as Itachi and Tsukasa glanced between the two. "Do you feel that?"</p><p>      "Incredibly irritated?" Tsukasa questioned, crossing her arms over her chest. "Yes. I do feel that."</p><p>     Shisui didn't smile like he usually would and instead tossed himself out of the way while Itachi grabbed her wrist and shoved her back as kunai lodged into the ground where we stood.</p><p>      Itachi glanced towards her face that went calm as stone before they both glanced towards the trees of the forest where the kunai had been tossed.</p><p>      "I can't believe they dodged it," the sound of a man's voice mused from in the trees before two ninja hopped down from the branches.</p><p>      "Whatever, it was luck. Let's just get this over with," the second man stated. They both wore black crow masks and their headbands were an obvious sign of Iwa.</p><p>     "There's a peace treaty between our nations," Itachi was the first to have the nerve to speak through the tension of the killing intent that radiated off the two ninja who wore full black.</p><p>      The first ninja chuckled, hard enough for his shoulders to shake. "Fuck the treaty."</p><p>
  
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>borogove – n. – A 'shabby-looking' bird with its feathers sticking out all around, that resembles 'something like a live mop'. (TLG)</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Gimble</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>CHAPTER SIX<br/>-•-<br/>GIMBLE</p><p>
  
</p><p>      <b>"I COULD BE STUDYING,"</b> Tsukasa stated off the bat, ducking under a shrub as another set of shuriken were tossed her way. Shisui was near her, so close that she could practically feel his chest pressed up against her back.</p><p>      She didn't get the chance to see where Itachi had disappeared off to, but she supposed it was just as well since this shrub could barely hide two let alone three.</p><p>      "Where's your sense of adventure, Tsu-chan," Shisui whispered with a raising grin that caused her eye to twitch.</p><p>      "If we survive this, you won't make it to your next adventure," Tsukasa muttered, finally catching sight of Itachi who rested perched on a high tree branch with his Sharingan activated.</p><p>      The two Iwa ninja looked to be befuddled and irritated as they scoured the forest clearing. "Where the fuck did they go?"</p><p>      The other ninja let out a growl that echoed in their crow masks. "Come out, kids. If you surrender, we won't hurt you."</p><p>      Shisui scoffed, "Does he think we're idiots?"</p><p>      "I think you're an idiot," Tsukasa muttered as she noticed with slight apprehension that she left her weapons bag back in her apartment next to the fallen stack of books.</p><p>      "Don't be cruel. Those could be your last words to me," Shisui retorted.</p><p>      "Good. I meant them," she replied, taking a slight motion forward to look through the opening of trees.</p><p>      "If Itachi was here, we could make a plan to take them on," Shisui stated, his voice suddenly lowering into a serious baritone. Tsukasa was slightly surprised that he knew how to be serious at all, considering he was a giant idiot who shoved her out a window only twenty minutes ago.</p><p>     "You are so annoying. I wish everyone was dead," she mumbled under her breath, just loud enough for him to hear.</p><p>      "Okay, so I'm sensing some left over tension between us," Shisui said and she narrowed her eyes. "Let's put it behind us and work together for now."</p><p>      Slowly, she nodded and tightened the bandages over her eye so they wouldn't fall off in an inopportune moment. "You distract, I'll attack."</p><p>      "Wait, that's your plan?"</p><p>     "You have flashy Ninjutsu, on that level, we play to your strengths. I have brute power—and quite frankly, your Taijutsu is lacking in comparison to mine," Tsukasa explained in a whisper.</p><p>      "I suppose. Itachi will probably try out a Genjutsu the moment he has the chance, if he hasn't already," Shisui commented and Tsukasa frowned.</p><p>      "How can you possibly know that?"</p><p>      "Itachi is what you call a-"</p><p>      "I just remembered. I don't care."</p><p>      Shisui pulled out a kunai, brushing his arm against her spine as he did. This effectively pushed her forward and annoyed her all in one. Tsukasa did her best to control the Chakra that was coursing through her veins, which was a harder feat when she tried to do it actively.</p><p>      "I swear to god, I'm gonna fuck these kids," the crow ninja's curse did not fall on deaf ears and his partner immediately shushed him.</p><p>        "Okay, I know we're going for that whole 'intimidating' vibe, but I think you gotta bring it down a notch," the other crow ninja replied. Shisui and Tsukasa visibly ignored the banter as they continued our own.</p><p>      "We need to have a serious talk about manners later," Shisui commented, and she found herself very much bemused.</p><p>      "Carve it on your tombstone," she retorted. "When I attack, you need to leave and get help." Tsukasa turned to him just in time to see a moment of hesitation cloud his expression.</p><p>      "I'm not leaving you two."</p><p>      "I'm not thrilled at being left to die either."</p><p>       "You're not making me feel better."</p><p>      "Why should you feel better?" Tsukasa asked in a monotone. "I'm the one with the death sentence. I just wanted to <em>fucking</em> study. You have your teleporting. Get out of here the moment I attack."</p><p>      Shisui stared at her, long and hard, his brows furrowed but she didn't give him a chance to argue as she shoved him out of the bush. He stood up slow and awkward, his legs straightening as he let out an awkward whistle while the two ninja stared him down.</p><p>      "Okay, I know what you're thinking." Shisui raised his hands up in the air, his smile absent of all nervousness. Instead it just appeared to be awkward.</p><p>     "Let's kill him," the crow ninja stated, his eyes narrowed and the other ninja sprung forward. Tsukasa briefly wondered if she would be the reason for his death before the crow's katana went straight through the kid's body as if it were made of smoke. "The fuck is that?"</p><p>      Shisui only continued to grin before the illusion of him flickered away completely in a barrage of black crows. Tsukasa was vaguely impressed by Itachi's swift action of Genjutsu and Shisui's act of disappearing.</p><p><em>      Those two are strong.</em> "Where the fuck he go?" One of the crow ninja hissed, but before he could get far, Tsukasa's fist slammed into his spine causing him to shove forward until his hands hit the ground. Her neck cracked as she straightened her body to the ground, spinning her leg so she could make contact with the second ninja. However, he wasn't nearly as unprepared and surprised as the first and his hands immediately gripped her calf.</p><p>      "You are way out of your league, little girl," the man said and she felt my eye narrow at his comment. Tsukasa never got a further idiotic retort from him as his hands let go of her calf. He looked around, his eyes scanning the area and looking right through her. "Where the fuck did that chick go?"</p><p>
  <em>      I'm right here.</em>
</p><p>      "Yano...I think I'm about to crap out my own spine," the other ninja said, straightening up and glancing right through Tsukasa as if she weren't there.</p><p>
  <em>      Genjutsu? Itachi...how did you...?</em>
</p><p>      Tsukasa decided not to waste the chance he had given her and she pushed out Chakra into her arms much differently than she had before. This time it was sharp, pointed and formed a blade of Chakra at her finger tips. It was a Jutsu she hadn't performed as Izana. It was a medical Jutsu that belonged strictly to Misaki. How fitting that it warps her mind into bloodlust when she used it. Still, Misaki had been able to keep it up for a solid two hours. Tsukasa could keep it up for maybe forty seconds.</p><p>      "It won't last much longer," Itachi's voice hissed all around me. "Run."</p><p>
  <em>      I am Izana Tsukasa. I don't run.</em>
</p><p>      Instead, she punctured her hand into the kidney of the second ninja, very close to where she had kicked him before. He shot down to his knees, his mask falling from his face as his eyes found her. No Genjutsu could hide her now and his hand coiled around her neck.</p><p>       "I'm gonna fuck this kid," he hissed and the first ninja sighed.</p><p>      "This kind of talk is why no one likes going on missions with you, Machi," the ninja, Yano, said as he grabbed her by her hair, pulling it back and her along with it. "You are a scary looking kid. There's death in your eyes...sorry..." he chuckled. "Eye."</p><p>      Being held up in the air by her hair was not how she was hoping to spend her afternoon. Tsukasa had been planning on far more appealing a Friday, like maybe buying more barbecue or burning Umino-sensei in his chair for the vast amount of homework he bestowed on her.</p><p>      Before he could undoubtedly kill her, Itachi's leg kicked into his back, knocking her down underneath him. She struggled to get away, but his hands wrapped around her neck, his fingers digging into the soft skin of her throat and suctioning off her air. She cursed the weakness of her arms as she slammed her palms against his wrists, trying to get him to release her throat.</p><p>      How odd that your strength became diminished without air.</p><p>      His mask was lose and it fell off his face and landed right next to her. His face was cold but it wasn't even half as scary as the woman's whose skin she wore the day she tore Misaki's tongue from her throat.</p><p>
  <em>      As if his features could scare me. I would not die again.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>      No...never again.</em>
</p><p>      Tsukasa ripped her fingers into his eye, gouging it with her nails and the last bit of her Chakra.</p><p>      "You fucking bitch," his hands went slack from her throat, the blood coating her face as the back of his hand struck her cheek. She could hear only vaguely Itachi fighting off the other ninja. He was calling her name, but all she could focus on was the air running into her lungs and fueling the coughing from her lips.</p><p>      She could taste blood against her tongue and hear the ninja's pained cries before it all went silent. She caught the glimpse of the Konoha police force, funneling in through the trees and surrounding them.</p><p>     "Tsu-chan, you okay?" Tsukasa felt Shisui help her up, her face covered in blood. Everything was blurry and her one good eye was shielded by the red goo.</p><p>      "It's not mine," Tsukasa whispered, running the back of her hand over her eye, finally catching sight of a black haired Uchiha man that she vaguely recognized as Sasuke's father...Itachi's father. The two ninja they had fought off were in custody, and the one without his eye stared her down, clutching his hand over the bloody face.</p><p>      "You are terrifying, Tsukasa," Shisui muttered with a small smile. "Did you do that to that guy?"</p><p>      "He made a joke about my eye," Tsukasa replied simply and Shisui slightly laughed.</p><p>      "I make jokes about your eye, does that mean I'm special?" he grinned, but flinched when she raised her hand. "Okay! No more jokes! You have no sense of humor, Tsu-chan," he said and she found herself slightly surprised by the innocence of his statement.</p><p>     "I suppose I don't," Tsukasa said, watching Itachi as he walked up to them. Shisui was sheepish as he rubbed the back of his head.</p><p>      "We made a pretty good team if I do say so myself," Shisui stated and she slowly nodded</p><p>      "Why didn't you run?" Itachi asked and she ran her fingers over the red markings on her neck.</p><p>      "I don't run if I can fight."</p><p>     "Don't you want to live?" he asked instead.</p><p>      "Cowards don't live long," Tsukasa replied, watching as Itachi's dad walked their way, his eyes stared her down so intently that her words ran mute.</p><p>      "You're Izana Tsukasa then?" he asked and she only nodded. "Hmm. Good work you three. Who knows what would have happened if they got away."</p><p>      "What did they want anyway?" Shisui asked.</p><p>      "Who knows, but I have an idea," the man tapped his finger against his head, referring to his eyes. It made her remember something as Misaki. How many enemy ninja would it take to steal and study a fabled Konoha Kekkei Genkai?</p><p>
  <em>      Obviously more than two.</em>
</p><p>═════ °• ♔ •° ═════</p><p>      "Kidnapping is not a good enough excuse for not completing your homework, Tsukasa," Umino-sensei stated and she felt a rush of annoyance for his remark.</p><p>
  <em>    Damn you, Uchiha Shisui.</em>
</p><p>      "Get it to me by noon today, or I will have to fail you," he stated, going back to the papers on his desk.</p><p>     <em> If I slam his head at a 35 degree angle with enough force I could snap his neck. </em>"Yes sensei."</p><p>
  <em>      I hate you so much.</em>
</p><p>      By the time she made it back to her apartment, she saw Shisui sitting on her bed with his face buried in her notes. Itachi on the other hand was at her desk, his pencil scrapping out her report on the defense measures Konoha took during the war.</p><p>      She didn't say anything and just took her book from the stack, lifting up her unfinished paper on Chakra control and sat down on the ground. "You're not even gonna ask?" Shisui said, and Tsukasa rolled her eye.</p><p>      "I have to get this completed by noon or I'm kicked out of the academy. Get to the books, idiot," Tsukasa retorted.</p><p>      "You're the idiot," he muttered, but raised his hands when she snapped her head to stare at him. "I'm kidding!"</p><p>     Her eye narrowed, "By noon."</p><p>      She ignored his mumbling, but her heart felt slightly warm by Shisui's stupidity and Itachi's quiet kindness.</p><p>      For the first time since returning to this world, she felt like Misaki again.</p><p>
  
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>gimble – v. – To make holes, as though with a hand-drill</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Alice's Adventures</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>CHAPTER SEVEN<br/>-•-<br/>ALICE'S ADVENTURES</p><p>
  
</p><p>      <b>"GO AHEAD, TSUKASA," </b>Umino ordered and she walked up to the front of the line, holding out her hands in front of her.</p><p><em>      I was going to, asshole</em> and she knew that the thought was nasty, but seriously, fuck this teacher. Her Chakra felt like a thin wire, cutting through her veins as it flowed into release. The crawling feeling under her skin returned, and she was happy that her eye was covered as she was uncertain what it would look like under the influence of the emitting Chakra. Still, if she could perform a Chakra scalpel, even for a short amount of time, she was damn certain she could  do a henge. Not to mention she had done them before. </p><p>      Tsukasa didn't announce her Jutsu, and instead, she let it announce itself as her shape took form of Umino-sensei. However, she allowed her inner distaste for him came out through the Jutsu as she became Umino in a dress.</p><p>      The class quaked with the intent to repress their laughter as Umino's face turned impassive with obvious annoyance. "Oh my, it appears I made a mistake. This is not the fabric I was going. Sorry, sensei," Tsukasa said in a monotone. It probably made him even more offended at her lack of apologetic dribble.</p><p>      "Tsukasa," Umino said, his face turning into a porcelain like mask of his previous displeasure. That's how she knew she was in trouble for annoying him. "I would like an entire report by tomorrow on the 'Art of Ninjutsu'. I hope this act of disobedience was worth it."</p><p>      It wasn't, but she bowed her head and said, "It was, see you tomorrow," as if she weren't annoyed.</p><p>      The class passed by slowly after that, and everyone finished their tests without any slip-ups resembling hers. She was half way through the 'Art of Ninjutsu' book by the time Itachi and Shisui took up the seats on either side of her.</p><p>      "Why do you egg him on?" Shisui asked with a laugh.</p><p>      "For someone who hates extra work this much, you sure do ask for it," Itachi agreed with a small smile.</p><p>      Tsukasa put down her book, raising her eyes to the ceiling, "at this point, I have no idea."</p><p>      Shisui chuckled, "shame, I was gonna invite you over to train with us this afternoon."</p><p>      She looked him dead in the eye and said, "I've never been more grateful for this report. Stop. I might just write him a strongly worded thank you letter." Shisui's lips curled into a pout.</p><p>      "'Tachi, Tsu-chan's being mean," Shisui's voice whined.</p><p>      "Do you need help with your report?" Itachi said without a second thought.</p><p>      "Not you too, Itachi. Do I have no true friends anymore?" Shisui commented and she rolled her eye, going back to her book.</p><p>      "You never had any true friends," she replied.</p><p>═════ °• ♔ •° ═════</p><p>      "Are you ready for the graduation test?" Shisui asked, tossing a kunai into her newly painted fucking ceiling and likely pissing off the people above them for the eighteenth time, one for every kunai that was embedded in the wood.</p><p>      "I was ready to get a quiet night without your rambling," she commented in return, glancing over her report, pencil in hand as she scribbled down random bullshit on the importance of training her hands to match her Ninjutsu.</p><p>      "I for one, didn't want you to be lonely," Shisui replied and Itachi scoffed from across from him, in his hands were one of her many books that were piled next to the window. "Shut up."</p><p>      "You two really have nothing better to do on a sunny afternoon?" Tsukasa sighed, finishing her essay.</p><p>      "Nah, we can train after your done," Shisui said, tossing a shuriken into her ceiling as he was obviously out of kunai.</p><p>      "Are you a masochist, Shisui?" Tsukasa asked, standing up and stretching her arms over her head.</p><p>      "You're about say something mean, aren't you, Tsu-chan?"</p><p>      "It's just weird to me that you are so prone to watching yourself get bested over and over again," Tsukasa replied. "After all, I'm pretty sure there's still an imprint of your face in the ground."</p><p>      "If I recall," Itachi chimed without looking up. "You were the one beaten last time."</p><p>       Tsukasa frowned, "yes. A slip up on my part. I let my emotions run wild."</p><p>      Itachi and Shisui laughed as if she just told a joke and Shisui said, "you have those?"</p><p>      "Everyone has an ego," she commented in return, drawing a small doodle of Umino-sensei in a dress at the top corner of her report before she tossed it on the desk. "Mine just so happens to take me over in battle."</p><p>      "Well, you're finished, lets go train." Shisui bolted up like a dog and she found herself almost agreeing.</p><p>      "When did I say I would train with you today?" Tsukasa asked, not because she didn't want to fight but more so because he had made the decision for her.</p><p>      "You are grumbling about it but you always end up saying yes," Itachi said, standing up and adjusting his weapons case. "Let's just save time with you agreeing."</p><p>      "You two really think you have me all figured out, don't you?" Tsukasa asked, furrowing her brows before realizing that she really wanted to fight. It was odd, as Misaki, she would have preferred to take her days slow and do yoga with her mother in the afternoon.</p><p>      This person she was becoming was so unlike how she knew she should be and how she knew she had been. <em>I'm really not Misaki anymore, am I?</em></p><p>      "We see how you look when you're fighting. One of these days I'm going to get a smile out of you," Shisui exclaimed with a proud grin.</p><p>      "If you wanted me to smile, all you had to do was ask." She pulled back her lips and forced a large, Cheshire shaped grin and it immediately made Shisui stop smiling.</p><p>      "On second thought, Tsu-chan, don't smile," Shisui said while Itachi nodded in agreement.</p><p>      When was the last time she smiled about anything? She supposed she smiled before her eye was gorged out like the insides of a kiwi. She hated to admit it, but she had grown attached to Tsukasa's--no--<em>her</em> mother. Her rebirth had been the most humiliating experience of her life (both lives). Nothing screamed more terrifying than not being able to open her eyes and forced, with complete consciousness of her surroundings, to listen to people without being able to interact in return. She supposed the whole thing turned her impassive to everything.</p><p>      She hadn't even know who 'Tsukasa' was until her eye had been gorged out, leaving behind a very familiar scar of fingernails around her eye. As if she could ever forget the face of the woman who killed Misaki and her friends.</p><p>      So no. In her perspective, there wasn't really anything to smile about. Even being around children didn't make the 'Misaki' in me happy. Everything about this world made her sick. Konoha was corrupt and Tsukasa was just looking for the good amongst the taint. It didn't help that she didn't look very hard. </p><p>      What kind of village would have three kids battle against a monster like the Tsukasa of Misaki's memory anyway? The mission that killed Hikaru and Shion had been the final factor that sealed away her heart.</p><p>      It had also allowed her to see the potential of strength this body had. Shion had been the strongest fighter she had ever met and her insides were gutted with Tsukasa's bare hands. <em>Not that I planned on gutting someone's insides. Something just told me that I could if I put some effort into it.</em></p><p>      "You have a scary look on your face," Shisui said and Tsukasa snapped from her morbid thoughts.</p><p>      "Lets fight," she said and he grinned slowly.</p><p>      "I knew you'd agree," Shisui replied.</p><p>      "I've always wanted to know what your blood would look like when it's smeared across Itachi's face," she said.</p><p>      "I'd much rather keep his blood away from me. Aim somewhere else," Itachi mused.</p><p>      She scoffed, "Looks like no one cares about your well-being, Shisui."</p><p>      "I care about my well-being!"</p><p>═════ °• ♔ •° ═════</p><p>      Tsukasa had never seen a grown man want to kill her until Umino stared down at the drawing of himself in a dress that remained at the corner of her report. She supposed she could look apologetic, but she figured that would require a fuck that she did not give.</p><p>      "Do you want to do 100 laps around the village again, Tsukasa?" Umino asked. She didn't let him know that she never did the laps the first time and instead spent three hours eating barbecue.</p><p>      "Am I supposed to say no?" Tsukasa asked after the awkward silence.</p><p>      "Redo the report. I would rather not be subjected to being in a dress."</p><p>      "That drawing could be anyone," Tsukasa commented in return, already knowing that her defense was flimsy. After all, she was actually very talented with a pencil</p><p>      He finally decided to take the report and he kneaded his fingers into his temples, "Get out of my office, Tsukasa."</p><p>      "If it makes you feel any better," she said, just before leaving. "At least everyone knows how good you look in a dress, Umino-sensei."</p><p>      She didn't stick around for her punishment.</p><p>═════ °• ♔ •° ═════</p><p>      "Okay, Tsukasa, what did you do to make sensei so mad. He had us running laps all day," Shisui asked, referring to the stamina training that she had sat out for at the expense of her afternoon writing more reports on her misbehavior.</p><p>      "Why do you assume it was me?" Tsukasa asked, earning a raised brow from Itachi. "I just gave him a compliment."</p><p>      "Do you even use compliments?" Itachi asked and she shrugged.</p><p>      "Sometimes, when the occasion calls for it. For example, I think Shisui makes a really cool face right before I kick his ass," she said, twirling a strand of her orange hair around her pointer finger.</p><p>      "My dad said I should never hit a girl," Shisui muttered to himself.</p><p>      "You two are prepared for the Genin test tomorrow then?" Tsukasa asked, and Shisui scratched his nose.</p><p>      "My mom said it was easy," Shisui commented.</p><p>      "It's what comes after that's hard," she replied.</p><p>      "And what comes after. I'm ready for anything!" Shisui exclaimed.</p><p>      "I didn't mean hard for you. It's hard for whatever poor bastard is on your team," she gave Itachi a sideways glance.</p><p>      "You learn to tone him out," Itachi commented.</p><p>      "You guys are way too mean. I'm going home."</p><p>       "Class isn't over yet."</p><p>      "I'm gonna wait until class is over and then I'm going home."</p><p>═════ °• ♔ •° ═════</p><p>      She would have to do very poorly in the written exam to end up on their team. She stared down at the class rankings, running her fingers over everyone's individual names. As horrible as it would to be on Shisui's team, his strength made up for it.</p><p>      All she ever wanted to do was fight these days, and while she could do that being an official Izana, she didn't want to follow in the original Tsukasa's footsteps. She didn't want to wake up one day and find that she had completely become <em>her</em>. She didn't want to be a killer and she didn't really care that much about money.</p><p>      If she was going to get a second chance at life, she wanted to do something significant with it. Itachi and Shisui were strong. If she could use them to climb to the top of this power chain then she would.  </p><p>      So she had to be on their team.</p><p>      Tsukasa grabbed her pen, crossing out names that wouldn't work. She crossed out 15 names of students she knew wouldn't pass and she circled 12 names that she knew would pass. From there she numbered their rankings and placed them in teams according to where they score. It was why she acted out so much with Umino. If she was the perfect student, no one would believe she scored so low. It was all very necessary, even if it cost her entire nights of reading. </p><p>     And she would be on Itachi and Shisui's team. If it was the last thing she did, she would gain that spot. Weaklings and war stricken bastards who were so sheltered by fearful parents that they know nothing about the necessity of strength were what most of the other were. They took the Shinobi life like a game, waiting for pleasantries and tossing kunai without aim to kill their enemies.</p><p>      She will not lose another team. She will not watch another team die. She will not die like that again.</p><p>   <em>   Never again.</em></p><p>      "Tsukasa!" Shisui exclaimed, rushing into her apartment and forcing her to hide her analysis of the class. It wasn't like she was afraid he'd find out how much she wanted to be on his team, but she'd prefer to avoid it if she could since his ego was already too inflated. "Guess what I heard?"</p><p>     "Please tell me. I've been awake all night with worry, waiting for this moment," she said in a deadpan.</p><p>     "You need to drop the attitude or I'm gonna tell someone else," Shisui pouted.</p><p>      "How did you get in my apartment?" Tsukasa asked, knowing she had locked the door.</p><p>     "Okay I'm just gonna tell you," he waved off her question and she made a mental note to change the locks. "The first exam is going to be Ninjutsu. We have to demonstrate a single D ranked Jutsu."</p><p>     She supposed that was a little more difficult than the graduation exam that she, as Misaki, had performed but she could only guess this was the cost of being in an era where war was kept at bay with a single document. Everyone knew one slight and the villages would be back to nipping at each-other's backs.</p><p>      "Wonderful. Can you get out?" Tsukasa said in reply.</p><p>      "No! I was coming cause we are having a training session," Shisui said, and Tsukasa sighed. Slowly, however, she decided that a late night training session would help her sleep. She got off the bed, putting on her shoes, much to Shisui's surprise. "Wait, you're coming? Just like that?" </p><p>      "Punching you in the face is therapeutic for me. What can I say?" Tsukasa replied, and followed him out of the building. He chatted about nothing, and if he did say anything important, Tsukasa sure as hell was not listening.</p><p>     "Itachi! I brought Tsu-Tsu!" Shisui shouted from across the field as Itachi continued to do handstand pushups. He flipped to his feet, sending Tsukasa a sympathetic glance.</p><p>     "You said you were going to get snacks," Itachi said with a wry smile. </p><p>      "I ran into Tsu-Tsu on the way," he said with a pout.</p><p>      "Okay, one, you entered my apartment. Two, you didn't even get snacks," Tsukasa said with a snort, walking away from him as she began her stretches. </p><p>     "Sure I did," Shisui said, pulling out some carrots in a container that was labeled 'Tsukasa'. "I found these."</p><p>      "From my fridge?" Tsukasa glanced towards Itachi with a look that very clearly said, 'why do I have to deal with him'.</p><p>      Shisui opened the container and ate a carrot. "Man, you buy the best carrots."</p><p>     Tsukasa took a deep breath, but she turned towards Itachi. "How about you and me then? Two months and I haven't sparred. I'm curious."</p><p>      "Alright, but I have an advantage," Itachi said with a smile.</p><p>      "Yes. You had a lot of chances to analyze my fighting style," Tsukasa agreed while Shisui grinned, taking a seat on the grass near the river. </p><p>      "In order to make it fair, I will limit myself to one hand," Itachi offered, and Tsukasa scoffed.</p><p>      "I don't need to be handicapped, Itachi. Use both hands. I'll adapt," she said, hearing the sound of Shisui's excessive munching on her carrots.</p><p>      "If you insist. Same rules then. No Sharingan," he agreed, raising one hand in front of him. He put one foot forward, twisting it into a stronger grip against the ground. Tsukasa watched all of this with amusement, but her heart was already spiking with adrenaline. </p><p>      "No Ninjutsu," she said, mirroring his stance. </p><p>     "Of course," Itachi agreed.</p><p>      "Kick her ass!" Shisui shouted, his lips curled into a smile. </p><p>      Tsukasa rushed forward first, allowing herself to give into the reflexes of his jabs and kicks. She dodged with her elbows, shoving him forward as she kicked his stomach. He gripped her ankle, keeping it against her as he ran his elbow into her calf. She winced, jumping back and dodging his next move. She gripped his arm, jumping over his shoulders as she flipped behind. </p><p>     She twirled back and ran her elbow into his kidney. She watched him flinch, unable to dodge his blindspot. Still he was fast, swiping and punching, dodging every attack and retaliating just as fast. Shisui was a great fighter, but Itachi was strategic. Shisui was all impulse, which was effective, but Itachi was thinking ahead and he was doing it quickly so it didn't impeach on his reflex time. </p><p>       Tsukasa ducked under his leg, but she quickly rolled away, narrowly missing the kunai by her face. She nearly smiled, catching the next one in between her fingers and tossing it back at him. He side-stepped it and it went flying at Shisui who squeaked and ducked.</p><p>      "You trying to kill me?" Shisui shouted angrily.</p><p>      "Sorry, Shisui," Itachi said with another smile, but his face was slightly flushed. </p><p>      "Not sorry, Shisui," Tsukasa said, jumping forward and slamming another kunai into his. It became a flurry of swipes, dodges, and kicks. It was nearly like that of a dance. Still, he threw his kunai and she side stepped them, so they fell around her. </p><p>     She glanced at them, finding it strange that he was missing since she had never known him to miss before. That was when her eye widened, catching a glint of metal in the distance. She noticed too late that the field was now covered in wires. She glanced back towards him, noticing he jumped and fought over them so skillfully, as if they were not there. </p><p>      <em>You tricked me</em>. </p><p>     Tsukasa sighed as she felt her ankle scrap against the wire behind her. He had analyzed her fighting style and thusly placed the wires in the most likely spots she'd step and duck. This trapped her in a very restricting position where she could readjust her steps around them, but he had the advantage of knowing the trajectory of every wire. She could break them, but that gave him the advantage of attacking her weak points. </p><p>      She dropped her kunai to the ground, feeling a wire cut her cheek as she moved wrong. She kept her hands where they were and Itachi smiled. </p><p>      "You win," Tsukasa said slowly, and Shisui clapped from the distance.</p><p>     "I was hoping to see you more bloody, but it's fine!" Shisui whined, chewing on his carrot.</p><p>     "You can release the wires now." Tsukasa waited still, not wanting to get cut by them. </p><p>      "Sorry," Itachi said, throwing eight kunai. They ricocheted off one another and cut every wire so they all fell around her. Tsukasa took a deep breath. "I decided that your stamina and fighting style was better than mine. I planned around those parameters."</p><p>      "Never apologize for winning," Tsukasa said, bowing to her opponent.</p><p>      Shisui pouted. "You're never this nice when I win!"</p><p>       "I don't like you," she replied.</p><p>═════ °• ♔ •° ═════</p><p>      "Your testing scores were a disappointment, especially considering you scored so well on your practicals," Umino scolded as he motioned for her to step forward.</p><p>      "Testing isn't my thing," Tsukasa said, feeling nostalgic to stand in this room once more, trying to get a headband to protect this village. The room was exactly the same, right down to the desk where Umino and two other practitioners sat, waiting to decide whether she would leave here a failure.</p><p>      She already knew the ones who failed their test completely were outside, hoping her, a child four years younger, would fail as well. <em>That would not be me.</em></p><p>      "Go ahead, a D ranked Jutsu," the woman on Umino's left said, her eyes were bright red, almost looking brighter with the dark color of her hair. Tsukasa did recognize her as one of the Jounin sensei from her life as Misaki. The one on Umino's left was Asuma, the future Jounin sensei who would end up dying, leaving his pregnant wife all alone.</p><p>      They were mere ghosts of the two Jounin that she had met in another life. Tsukasa didn't want to think about Misaki anymore since she was a ghost as well.</p><p>      Tsukasa placed her hands together and next to her was an exact copy of herself. The Jounin looked bored, as it was a boring Jutsu, but their eyes scanned every last detail. "You paid much attention to the details," the red eyed Chuunin said, staring at every last spec of the clone.</p><p>      "Yes. She always had a knack for the details, more so than any of the other graduates," hearing Umino give her a compliment was odd, almost nauseating. <em>Ah, and it filled me with a tiny sense of pride.</em></p><p>      "Why do you want to be a Shinobi?" Asuma asked and Tsukasa almost hesitated, rather happy he said 'Shinobi', treating her as an equal instead of, 'Kunoichi' and treating her as a mere woman. There was nothing wrong with being a 'Kunoichi', but the classes given as requirement for 'Kunoichi' training said enough to know that women were not as seriously taken as men. After all, the boys did not have to take a class where they are taught about other cultures and how skills such as flower arranging  will help them to blend in during an infiltration mission</p><p>      <em>Sexist bullshit.</em></p><p>      The last time she had taken this test, they merely watched the Jutsu get preformed, and gave the headband. It seemed the years of peace made the exam much more lax.</p><p>      Worse than that, Tsukasa knew she didn't have a proper answer for him. She wasn't on some noble mission and she didn't care about much of anything in this life. That was the entire reason for wanting to be on Itachi and Shisui's team. They drove her to do better, to fight better, and to want more.</p><p>      The only thing Tsukasa could do at this moment was be honest since she never liked lying, "because why not."</p><p>       She saw Umino rest his head in his hands as the two on his left and right chuckled. "Well, I look forward to seeing your career blossom, Izana Tsukasa." Umino tossed the headband her way. She caught it with one hand and bowed, showing the first sign of respect towards him that she would likely ever show.</p><p>      "Good luck," Asuma and the red eyed woman smiled.</p><p>      The headband rested in her hands as she turned to walk out of the room. She made a promise in that moment, as the headband weighed heavily in her grasp.</p><p>
  <em>      I will not die this time.</em>
</p><p>      "You're not wearing it?" Itachi asked as she sat in between him and Shisui, who was currently adjusting his headband from around his head.</p><p>      "Neither are you," she replied with a shrug.</p><p>      "I'm well on my way to becoming the first Uchiha as Hokage," Shisui said with a grin.</p><p>      "No one would vote for you," Tsukasa said, watching the last of the students take the test. From what she could see, only 12 students passed and the rest went home, dejected and depressed. It was all as Tsukasa predicted.</p><p>      "Okay," Umino said, exiting the room and staring at the 12 passing students, most of which were 12 to 13 years old while Tsukasa, Itachi, and Shisui were much younger. She grew slightly worried that they'd assign the three of them according to age, as to balance them all out. "The turned out is as we thought. Those that passed, congratulations, but this exam was the easy part. The tests of your comradery, bravery, and strength will happen with every mission. We learned about the death count in the Great Shinobi wars. We have set up your teams, using all that you've learned here to place you with the teams that you will be most suited to grow and fight alongside.</p><p>      "I will call your names in order of your teams. Be prepared, we are pairing groups of three according to whether or not you will work well alongside them. We are not pairing you up with your friends," Umino held up a folder, opening it.</p><p>      It looked to Tsukasa like they had deduced who would pass the exam and already created teams. How sly.</p><p>      "Hold my hand guys. Let's pray." Shisui's voice made her roll her eye.</p><p>      "Don't touch me," Tsukasa muttered, watching as teams were made from all around them.</p><p>      "And under team six, we have Uchiha Itachi, Izana Tsukasa, and Uchiha Shisui," Umino said, not sparing them a longer glance.</p><p>      Tsukasa let out a breath of relief to which Shisui spotted and shouted, "Hah, I knew it. Itachi, I told you she wanted to be on our team!"</p><p>     "Shut your mouth," Tsukasa retorted, slightly embarrassed since everyone heard and were now staring at all three of them with frowns. </p><p>      "I'm sorry for what you have to deal with," Itachi said with a sigh.</p><p>      "Me too," Tsukasa agreed.</p><p>       "You all are mean," Shisui whined.</p><p>
  
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. The Mad Hatter</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>CHAPTER EIGHT<br/>-•-<br/>THE MAD HATTER</p><p>
  
</p><p>      <b>THERE WERE MANY TIMES WHEN TSUKASA WOULD HAVE A VIOLENT THOUGHT, </b>and most of the time it was due to one of four things: gossiping (she did realize the irony), passive aggressive people, dishonesty, and Uchiha Shisui. She was exhausted after training twelve full hours alongside Shisui and Itachi. That wasn't because of the actual training, but more because Shisui never shut up.</p><p>      "Maybe our team name can be Dragon Fang," he commented, as she dodged his fist before it could collide with her one good eye before swinging her leg to kick Itachi.</p><p>       "We had a truce," Itachi commented, catching her leg and simultaneously tripping her.</p><p>       "Why Dragon Fang?" Tsukasa asked from her uncomfortable spot on the ground. Shisui scratched his head as her hand quickly reached into her bag, grabbing a kunai with a small bomb attached. Her finger brushed against the fuse, using her Chakra to light it before throwing it at Itachi.</p><p>      "You brought bombs." Itachi used one of his own kunai to hit hers over to Shisui, who had just opened his mouth to explain why 'Dragon Fang' was going to be their new team name.</p><p>      Shisui's eyes widened, narrowly managing to duck as the bomb exploded behind him. "Itachi, the fuck?"</p><p>      "I don't think Dragon Fang is a very good name," Itachi said, agreeing with her as she stood back up.</p><p>      "You don't like it so you try to get me killed," Shisui's voice was playful and Tsukasa began to wonder if he ever got mad at anything.</p><p>      "I have an idea about our team name," she stated in a deadpan, watching as Shisui's eyes brightened and Itachi let out a low sounding snort.</p><p>      "Finally, you are opening up that cold shell of yours and showing a different side of yourself." Shisui's lips were curved in a large grin and she briefly wondered what about herself made him so attached. She simply did not understand. "What name have you thought up?"</p><p>      "Team six," she answered in just as cold a deadpan.</p><p>      Shisui's face went blank, "I'm going home."</p><p>     "I thought you wanted to train," Itachi asked, seeing as it was his idea.</p><p>      "No, 'tachi. I've been hurt one too many times," the other boy responded, body flickering away for dramatic purposes.</p><p>      "How far can he go?" Tsukasa asked and Itachi slightly smirked.</p><p>      "Not far," he said, and they glanced around the forest, wondering which bush Shisui hid behind.</p><p>      "Wanna go out for dumplings and dango?" Tsukasa asked, noticing Itachi's eyes suddenly brighten before he coughed into his hand, trying to cover the expression.</p><p>      Tsukasa hadn't been expecting Itachi to order more than one stick of dango, and by the time she realized it, he had already consumed eight. She ordered one after another with no surprise since her favorite thing to do was eat and it was perhaps the only trait that followed her after being reborn. Also, both Itachi and her were notoriously quiet so there wasn't much else to do but eat while both their eyes were set on the shogi board.</p><p>      "I wasn't expecting a ryōtori," Tsukasa commented offhandedly, as Itachi used one piece to attack two of her pieces simultaneously, thusly winning the game. Tsukasa leaned back, tempted to stab the empty dango stick into Itachi's eye.</p><p>       "I wasn't expecting you to be a sore loser," Itachi said with a shrug.</p><p>
  <em>      I just lost to a six year old. I actually lost to a six year old.</em>
</p><p>      She couldn't quite accept that action and found herself in a state of lament.</p><p>      "You're too bold," Itachi said, placing the pieces back in formation on his side of the board. "Its better to sit back for a while longer as you build up your defenses, simultaneously thinking up four plans of offense."</p><p>      "Who taught you to play?" Tsukasa asked, meeting his gaze.</p><p>      "My father," he admitted, and she nodded.</p><p>      "Have you surpassed him?" Tsukasa asked and he smiled.</p><p>      "No," he said, and she glanced to the side, staring at the Hokage monument through the opening of the dango stand's high cut curtains. It was one Hokage carving short of what she remembered. She remembered the mountain was one of the only things that survived Pein's destruction of Konoha. She know she had died back then during that attack, but it had been quick and moments later she had awoken as if she had only fallen asleep alongside many others who had died and awoken after the hero Naruto had gotten Pein to revive the village.</p><p>      Tsukasa shook her head. <em>You would think after dying twice, I would be less afraid of that darkness, but I wasn't.</em> So many people walked into death with smiles and peace, and yet she was so afraid of what happened.</p><p>      "You will. One day, I think you will become very powerful," Tsukasa said, not meeting his eyes.</p><p>      "You sound very confident about that," he replied and she made the first move on the board. "Do you think that about Shisui as well?"</p><p>      "I just know potential when I see it. You and Shisui both," Tsukasa admitted, and Itachi's eyes moved behind her with a growing smile. A sense of dread filled her chest. "He's behind me, isn't he?"</p><p>      "I knew you recognized my greatness," Shisui wrapped his arm around her shoulder, sitting next to her.</p><p>      Tsukasa scowled at both of them, "you both suck."</p><p>      "Shut up and enjoy our first meal as team six, company of the Dragon Fang," Shisui cheered, stealing one of Tsukasa's dango.</p><p>      "Back off," she muttered, stealing back her dango and taking a bite from where he nibbled.</p><p>      "Please don't call us Dragon Fang," Itachi said, putting his head into his palm.</p><p>      "Hearing myself say it out loud makes me agree with you, Itachi," Shisui said with a sheepish grin.</p><p>      "Move your arm," she ordered.</p><p>═════ °• ♔ •° ═════</p><p>
  <b>
    <em>Team meeting Intro</em>
  </b>
  <br/>
  <b>
    <em>Hokage Mountain at six</em>
  </b>
  <br/>
  <b>
    <em>Be late. I dare you.</em>
  </b>
  <br/>
  <b>
    <em>- HH</em>
  </b>
</p><p>      "Is that a Haiku?" Tsukasa muttered as she stared at the poem with a grimace. For a moment she thought she was imagining the note that rested right next to her head. It was written in neat calligraphy, and she read it with a scoff, glancing at the clock to see it said 5:49 am.</p><p>  <em>    Who leaves a note for a meeting so early the day of the meeting? Does no one in this village fucking sleep?</em></p><p>      Tsukasa groaned, taking her time to get out of bed as she slipped on some leggings from her drawer, simultaneously brushing her teeth and watching the clock tick away her future. She slipped on her shoes next, glancing out the window where to Hokage mountain stood, tall and far away.</p><p>
  <em>      Five minutes in and my morning already sucks.</em>
</p><p>═════ °• ♔ •° ═════</p><p>      Itachi had already been ready by the time a small note flew into his window. He caught it with a skillful hand, his fingers will curled around his toothbrush as he read the Haiku with a raise of his brows. He glanced at the clock that said: 5:35 am with a slight smile. Nowhere, however, could he see the sensei who dropped it off.</p><p>═════ °• ♔ •° ═════</p><p>      Shisui was laying half way on the ground, his legs twisted in his blankets, and snoring when he was hit in the face with a note that went straight up his nose. He was choking and coughing, causing his entire body to fall of the bed as he tried to grab to note off his face. He cracked his eyes open and attempted to read it through the dimly lit room and a haze of sleep. </p><p>     He yawned, attempting to untangle himself from his blankets as he read the note. He glanced towards the clock, seeing it read 5:39 am and Shisui let out a gasp. He quickly tried to rush out of the room, but his ankle was still tangled in his blankets so he tripped and hit his head against his bed frame with a groan. </p><p>═════ °• ♔ •° ═════</p><p>      Tsukasa glanced around the mountain, slightly out of breath with one minute to spare until six am. At least, that was what she thought until she noticed that neither Shisui or Itachi or the sadist sensei were anywhere to be seen on the ground. She craned her head up, straining her one eye to see the top of the monument of the Hokages.</p><p>      "Is being a ninja really worth this?" Tsukasa mumbled, feeling the seconds drag by as she applied Chakra into her feet, remembering all that Itachi taught her as she ran up the monuments before breaking her speed into a sprint. She could keep her Chakra steady for, she found, 35 seconds. This was a drag for long walks, but luckily, she was a very fast runner. </p><p>      By the time she reached the top, she was exhausted, not from over exerting her and mostly from not getting enough sleep.</p><p>      "Now that you are all here," the man with black hair said, darting his eyes over to the three of us and finding that Shisui was the only one smiling. Although, he was sporting a nasty bruise on his forehead. "Let's climb down the monument and get some introductions in."</p><p>      "Are you serious?" Tsukasa asked, having already used her Chakra to get up here in the first place.</p><p>      "It's rather cold up here," the man said with a playful grin as he stepped off the monument and calmly fell to the ground.</p><p>      The three of them watched him look back at them and hold up a thumb with an idiotic grin on his face.</p><p>      "Does he expect us to jump?" Itachi asked with a frown. Even with their advanced skill, such a high jump like this would require a lot of Chakra control to fill the coils of their legs and withstand the pressure of the ground.</p><p>      "If you two are scared you can hold my hand," Shisui said in an amused voice, holding out his hand towards Itachi and Tsukasa. We both were unamused by Shisui's blatant sass.</p><p>      "Hold your own hand," Tsukasa replied and Shisui grinned.</p><p>      The boy walked backwards, clapping his hands together as his feet darted closer and closer to the ledge. "See you on the other side." And like that, be took the last step and fell straight and true to the ground.</p><p>      "Show off," Itachi said with an exasperated sigh while she nodded in agreement, watching Shisui body flicker just before the landing.</p><p>      "It is way to early for this," Tsukasa muttered, standing up and her steps got closer to the ledge.</p><p>      "You're really going to jump?" Itachi asked, and she shrugged, turning towards him with her back facing the ledge. "And you're going backwards?"</p><p>      "If I die then at least I won't have to wake up this early anymore," she commented, falling backwards. She gathered Chakra in her feet, scraping them against the Hokage's faces and nearly breaking off Hashirama's nose before jumping to the ground. Tsukasa couldn't go the full way again with just Chakra in her soles, so instead she settled for jumping down with careful steps against the monuments. "Is the climbing over? You have no idea how much I hate climbing. I actually hate moving in general."</p><p>      "Says the one who specializes in taijutsu," Itachi said from behind her, causing her to jump at how quickly he had made it down the mountain.</p><p>      "Okay. I'm Hyuuga Hisanobu." The man was too entirely cheery at 6 in the <em>fucking</em> morning. More than that, Tsukasa knew him. He was Hyuuga Hikaru's father and she'd have to be blind not to see the resemblance to her old teammate. It was obvious from their cheekbones and square jaw. Even the sound of their voice and the slant of their eyes was a mirror. "I have an adorable son and a gorgeous wife."</p><p>      "That's not a very good introduction," Itachi commented.</p><p>      Looking at him reminded her of the way Hikaru's head caved in with the pressure of Tsukasa...the real Tsukasa...<em>of her blade.</em> She had forgotten many things since her rebirth, but she would forever remember that thunderous crunch of his skull as he tried to save her yet again.</p><p>      "Let's start with introductions," he turned to the happily smiling Shisui with a point. "You first."</p><p>      "I'm Uchiha Shisui. I like tuna and cute girls."</p><p>
  <em>     That is an odd combination...</em>
</p><p>     Hisanobu turned his attention to me, his eyes slanted in amusement. "Okay. Your turn kid."</p><p>      "Tsukasa Izana."</p><p>      "And..." the man motioned Tsukasa to continue, reminding her all too much of a certain academy teacher who may or may not be on her shit-list.</p><p>      "Pass," Tsukasa said, causing Shisui to sigh.</p><p>      "Sorry sensei. Tsu-Tsu apparently doesn't like anything," he commented and in that moment she began to wonder if he was right.</p><p>      "Bite me, dirt eater," she said, causing Shisui's face to morph into confusion.</p><p>      "Dirt eater? I've never eaten-" he didn't get to finish, as she tripped him and he landed face first in the dirt.</p><p>      "Sensei, Tsu-Tsu is a bitch," he whined, spitting out the brown.</p><p>      "Marvelous," Hisanobu clapped his hands with a gleeful chuckle. Tsukasa didn't see how the question of her interests and being a bitch was an occasion for celebration, but she never cared much for Hikaru's father in the past. He decided to accept her pass, as he turned to Itachi with a smile. "Your turn."</p><p>      "Itachi Uchiha. I don't particularly dislike anything, but I value teamwork and skills," he said honestly, and she sighed, still trying to think of things that she liked.</p><p>      She didn't mind reading, but she wouldn't say she liked it. She could certainly live without it. She didn't train because she liked it. She trained for survival and nothing more. She could say that there was a certain thrill she got in fighting, but she didn't get it fighting just anyone.</p><p>     <em>Well, I suppose I do like something. </em>Tsukasa glanced between Shisui and Itachi with a slight frown. She actually rather enjoyed being around the two of them, as they made her feel like Misaki once more. Still, she was hardly about to say that in front of them.</p><p>
  <em>      Fuck that.</em>
</p><p>      "Well then, it's a pleasure to meet you three." The man bowed with an enthusiastic smile, and Tsukasa took notice of the rice hat that stayed firmly put when he did. It wasn't often she saw people, especially ninja, wear a conical hat, especially since it was neither raining or sunny. From her experience, ninja would usually wear one when they had something to hide.</p><p>      "There is no test," Shisui asked, having been told of the extra test after academy in order to decide if they were ready to be Genin.</p><p>      The Hyuuga man grinned, "oh? I performed an assessment of your obedience, if it makes you feel better, you can call that a test. I don't much care for tests, Shisui-chan. I suppose your skills will be tested on your own time and not mine, if that does not bother you. Missions, actual missions, have a way of showing you what you are capable of."</p><p>      Tsukasa slightly perked at the mention of danger.</p><p>═════ °• ♔ •° ═════<br/><br/></p><p>      "Alpha at point A."</p><p>      "Sexy Single Shisui at point B. Preparing for decent." </p><p>       "We agreed that wouldn't be your name."</p><p>       "I agreed to nothing, 'tachi. Preparing for decent."</p><p>      "I have the cat."</p><p>      "What do you mean you have the cat?" Shisui's exclamation over the ear piece was piercingly loud.</p><p>      "Animals like me," came Tsukasa's reply as Tora purred up against her leg. Originally, she was just gonna let Shisui and Itachi do the mission while she laid against a tree. She had done the Tora mission before, and the thing was a rite of passage for Genin. This Tora had a slightly different shade of color than the one before, so she could only assume that the old bitch had a bunch of cats and that they were all named Tora.</p><p>      And they all wanted to run away.</p><p>      "God damn it, Tsukasa, I had a strategy."</p><p>      "No one even listened to your strategy," Tsukasa replied, scratching her fingers against the cat's head. She had been minding her own business after all. It was not her fault that cats liked her.</p><p>      Judging by Shisui's offended silence, Tsukasa had to guess she had actually upset him. His voice echoed in the earpiece, "did you hear her, Itachi, ridiculous right?"</p><p>      "Well..." Itachi's voice broke off and she continued petting Tora's forehead, just in between his eyes.</p><p>      "Not you too, Itachi."</p><p>      "Marvelous," came the sensei's voice.</p><p>      "What so good about this betrayal?" Shisui whined.</p><p>      "That someone actually laid out a plan."</p><p>     "What good is a plan if Tsukasa never listens?" Shisui replied.</p><p>      "I heard it," Tsukasa replied. "I just decided not to obey."</p><p>      "We have the cat, so it doesn't matter," said the peace mediator otherwise known as Itachi.</p><p>      "I had a strategy guys..."</p><p>
  
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. Eat Me</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>CHAPTER NINE<br/>
-•-<br/>
EAT ME</p><p>
  
</p><p>      <b>"I'M JUST SAYING THAT I THINK IT WOULD BE BENEFICIAL TO GO BY THE </b>plan that I ha laid out," Shisui argued, causing her to nearly roll her eye so far back it would make a full rotation.</p><p>      "And I'm just saying it would be beneficial if you would learn to shut up every once in a a while," Tsukasa said in return, dumping the trash into the garbage as he continued pulling the weeds.</p><p>      "I just don't see why you have to break apart the Power Squad with your attitude," Shisui returned with a snappy reply while Itachi scoffed at the comment.</p><p>      "Power Squad? What are you? Nine?" Tsukasa replied.</p><p>      "Yes actually. Nine and a half," he said proudly. "You guys don't like Power Squad? What about Crimson Foxes? Academy Rioters?"</p><p>      "I think we need to have a talk about your team names," Itachi chimed in and Shisui puckered his lips.</p><p>      "What's <em>wrong</em> with <em>my</em> team names?"</p><p>      "Well, for one," Tsukasa began, taking a feel of his mood in hopes that she could shatter it so they could finish the stupid mission in awkward silence. "They suck."</p><p>     "Then you come up with something," Shisui retorted.</p><p>      "I don't need to, the village already did that for us. It's called 'Team Six'," Tsukasa replied, hand on her hip as she glanced towards Hyuuga Hisanobu who was currently sitting absently and drumming his hands against his knees to some kid's lullaby.</p><p>      "Hey, Hisanobu-sensei, these missions kind of suck," Shisui said, looking ready to give up on pulling the weeds that would only come back in two weeks for him to pluck once more.</p><p>     "Well, Shisui-kun, unfortunately the majority of Konoha's missions are D-rank. It's where most of the revenue comes from. So don't complain, because your task is important. Don't lose hope," Hisanobu said, causing her to glance towards him with a raised brow. For a moment, it sounded as if he had just told them something straight after a brochure.</p><p>      "Wow sensei," Tsukasa attempted to put emotion into her voice as she clapped her hands together. "I am inspired. Let's get the day off and eat barbecue."</p><p>   <em>   I became a ninja for power and yet I am stuck shoveling dirt like a lowly Genin. This honestly and truly sucks.</em></p><p>      "D-rank missions are important in their own way," Itachi stated, pulling the last of the weeds. "See all done."</p><p>     "There's still the weeds behind the house too," Hisanobu informed him. Itachi stared into the sky for the longest moment before he took off his gloves.</p><p>      "I too believe we should get more experienced missions," Itachi commented and Tsukasa let out an unenthusiastic cheer of agreement.</p><p>     "Way to go sensei. These D-rank missions have done broken Itachi," Shisui agreed and Hisanobu's calm face broke into a gentle smile as he adjusted his straw hat.</p><p>     "Are all three of you in agreement?" he asked and Tsukasa shrugged.</p><p>     "It's the only time you will get me to agree with Shisui," she commented and Hisanobu pouted his lips.</p><p>      "Alright. I will ask for a C-rank mission when I feel up to it," Hisanobu decided and Shisui groaned. </p><p>     "Maybe you could get the C-rank now, so we can just go home and prepare for it," Tsukasa suggested and Hisanobu stood up with a slightly intimidating frown as his straw hat shadowed his eyes.</p><p>      "You three think you are ready for a C-rank mission?" Hisanobu asked and the Genin team nodded, even Itachi. "Okay then. Perfect time to tell you that I already pushed for one. We leave tomorrow for our bodyguard mission."</p><p>      "Seriously? When were you planning on sharing this detail?" Shisui groaned, watching as their sensei let out a laugh.</p><p>      "I was saving it for after you finished heading up to the market for a fresh batch of strawberries," Hisanobu admitted, causing Itachi to slightly frown.</p><p>      "That wasn't on the mission report," he said, causing Tsukasa to let out a slight grimace in agreement.</p><p>      "Oh, well, add that to the list," Hisanobu ordered with a wiggle of his finger.</p><p>     Itachi's brows furrowed further. "But it wasn't on the original scroll."</p><p>     "Well, your sensei wants to eat strawberries tonight, so get to de-weeding the house and go." Hisanobu Hyuuga was exactly as Tsukasa remembered him from her past life. <em>Absolutely irritating.</em></p><p>     "Don't you think it's ridiculous that we're running errands like this?" Shisui muttered later that day as we walked towards the Hyuuga complex. She wasn't too excited to be agreeing with Shisui so often today, but she made certain to keep it to herself.</p><p>      "Stop complaining. Shinobi life isn't all about protecting Kages and escorting royalty to their palaces," Tsukasa commented, less because she wanted to appease and defend Hisanobu, and more because her pride was too great to admit that Shisui was right.</p><p>      Itachi was silent as he carried the strawberries in his hands, and she glanced down at one of the many bags in her own grip. She never developed a tooth for candy, sweets, or fruits. However, she was eternally up for things that were bitter or salty, since she herself was bitter and salty about everything.</p><p>      "Let's say we make these strawberries less than appealing," Tsukasa suggested, after glancing over to the side of the road where a small flower rested. She leaned over and used her sleeve to pluck it.   </p><p>      "Aren't those poisonous?" Itachi asked, causing her to glance towards him with a frown.</p><p>      "Only in large quantities," Tsukasa admitted, as she took out one of her kunai and crushed the petals against a rock.<em> Thank you, sexist Kunoichi classes.</em> After that, she carefully used a senbon needle to scoop some of the crushed flower before inserting it into the top of one of the strawberries, covered by the strawberry leaves. "In small doses, it will just-"</p><p>      "Give him intense diarrhea?" Shisui interjected and Tsukasa shrugged.</p><p>      "I don't think this is a good idea," Itachi commented as she began to stab the crushed flowers into another strawberry.</p><p>     "Didn't you think it was odd that as a 'training exercise', he had us clean all that laundry last week?" Tsukasa asked, meeting Itachi's eye. "It was obviously his dirty clothes."</p><p>═════ °• ♔ •° ═════</p><p>      "Enjoy your strawberries sensei," Shisui said with a wide grin as Itachi sighed from behind him. Tsukasa didn't fret over that, as her eyes were too fixated on the small toddler of Hikaru, waddling next to Hisanobu. She felt my breath catch in her throat and she placed her fingers against her neck, the ghost like pain of another life flooding back to her.</p><p>      "Don't eat too many," she said, trying to ignore the way his innocent eyes bore into hers as the memory of a cracking skull flooded her mind.</p><p>      "See you three bright and early next week," Hisanobu commented, catching the three of them by surprise.</p><p>      "You said the mission was tomorrow?" Shisui said and Hisanobu gave us an oblivious smile.</p><p>      "Did I? No, that doesn't sound like me," he told them.</p><p>     "Enjoy the strawberries, sensei," Itachi chimed in, breaking Tsukasa from Hikaru's bright eyed stare as Shisui took her hand and dragged her away from the house as Hisanobu began to close the door.</p><p>     "I love my students," Hisanobu said to his son before he disappeared from her view.</p><p>     "What's wrong with you?" Shisui asked, and Tsukasa blinked slowly, meeting Itachi and Shisui's gaze, finding they were both boring their eyes into hers.</p><p>      "You froze up back there," Itachi said, and the fact they noticed slightly angered her. Tsukasa let a sign of vulnerability slip in a moment of weakness. She couldn't let that happen. It would only bring up questions in which she have no answers that would be acceptable.</p><p>      "Nothing. Can't a girl space out?" Tsukasa brushed past them, and she felt Shisui grab her arm.</p><p>     "I felt you freeze up. You looked terrified," Shisui stated and she blinked her single eye, glancing at his hand that still rested on her arm. Itachi placed his hand on Shisui's, forcing him to let go.</p><p>      "Have a nice night, Tsukasa," Itachi told her, all but dragging Shisui away. Tsukasa watched them go for a couple seconds before she turned around and made her way back to her apartment.</p><p>      Her hands were shaking.</p><p>     "Looks like I'm not completely apathetic," Tsukasa muttered. <em>That's good. I'd rather feel this than feel nothing at all.</em></p><p>      Once more, she didn't feel like Tsukasa's shadow. She was herself again, even if she didn't exactly know who that person was anymore.</p><p>═════ °• ♔ •° ═════</p><p>      Tsukasa awoke before first light to a ghost pain in her eye. It was often something that would ail her on long nights. It had been years since it was taken from her, but sometimes it still throbbed as if it were still there. Her fingers brushed against the bandage that she had fallen asleep in and she frowned. Usually she would change into an eyepatch at night, and change into bandages the moment she awoke, since Shisui would obviously call her Captain Kasa, among other pirate jokes she'd have to kick him for.</p><p>      Tsukasa sighed, still remembering Hikaru's tiny beady eyes, staring up at her. She began to wonder if he would come to the same end in this time as well. <em>Would I be the one to end it in a blood bath?</em></p><p>      Tsukasa shook her head, grabbing her boots and tying the laces before walking to the window. It was a long way down. She opened the window, glancing out towards the red light district only a couple streets away. On the balcony next to her, stood a girl with vibrant white hair and legs that went on for days. As if she felt Tsukasa staring, her gaze flickered over to the orange haired girl before she smirked and continued drinking from her bottle of what looked to be peach sake. <em>At 4 in the morning?</em></p><p>      Tsukasa didn't judge as she enjoyed the cool breeze.</p><p>      "If you're going to jump, do so when I'm not home," the white haired girl said, right before she headed towards her door back inside. "Splatter sounds and civilian screams really ruin the ambience. "</p><p>       Tsukasa scoffed, heading to the door and walking out onto the balcony. The breeze and vibrant pale moon helped calm down from the restless sleep. It was obvious that seeing the boy brought back a fear she had tried to repress, because it was irrational to be afraid of her own face. Tsukasa leaned over the balcony, catching sight of the training grounds in the distance. "Yeah. Yeah okay."</p><p>      If she couldn't sleep, then she might as well train until the sun rises. The morning dew and chirping birds brought her fearful heart to a standstill as her hands finally stopped shaking with a fear she had earnestly thought she had let go. Tsukasa immersed herself into the cricket sounds that ended the moment she got to the training grounds before she unleashed her frustrations and doubts onto the exercise routine she had created. Her clone tossed kunai in her direction, and blindfolded, she hit each and every one with the back of her hand. Moving through the motions, Tsukasa felt sweat stick to her forehead as her chest heaved up and down.</p><p>      She hadn't even realized she was this exhausted until it was too late and her footing slipped, causing her to fall onto her back, slamming her elbow against the grass. In hindsight, Tsukasa knew it wasn't real, but logic didn't help her when she saw the original Tsukasa of her nightmares had knelt towards her. She saw the blood of Hikaru and Shion on her fingers and splatters of that familiar red upon her face.</p><p>      "Don't scream little girl," the apparition told her, and like before Tsukasa felt her lips open to scream. However, no noise came out and she instead just squeezed her eye shut. <em>There was no way I could survive the oncoming attack a second time.</em></p><p>      This thought wasn't logical, snapping Tsukasa out from her sleep-deprived hallucination and opening her eyes to the empty forest floor. It was impossible for her to die like she had before, and momentarily she was too apathetic to care. Apathy was bad. Every time it took her over, she felt my humanity drip like sand in between her fingers. She could try to grab the exact same grains from the ground, but she'd always leave a few behind. Pretty soon, she would end up dropping all of it and there'd be nothing left. The more she dropped, the less she'd want the burden of carrying it around.</p><p>      That time was approaching, and she didn't even care enough to stop it. But she had to care because she was Misaki, not Tsukasa. She couldn't become lost in her body or in this wonderland of crazy. She just had to find the door and keep it open so she could escape <em>her</em> fate. </p><p>      "Training is a lot more effective when standing," Itachi's voice broke Tsukasa from her thoughts, and surely she must have looked like a mess between yesterday and now. The last thing she needed was to become her team's burden. That was one mistake she made as Misaki before, but it wouldn't happen again.</p><p>      "Perhaps I'm meditating," Tsukasa announced, and Itachi shrugged, getting out his kunai.</p><p>      "Your meditation methods are strange, but do continue. I'll train over there," he said, and Tsukasa could barely understand how he could so quickly believe her.</p><p>       "No. No that's fine. Let's spar," Tsukasa suggested and Itachi straightened out his back.</p><p>      "Are you sure you want your ego bruised first thing in the morning?" Itachi asked with a raised brow that caused her to tilt her head to the side. Tsukasa's pride was stung, but Itachi didn't look concerned for the damage his words may have caused.</p><p>      "Last time we tied," she reminded him and Itachi's lips twitched into the smallest of smirks. Perhaps this was what she admired about Itachi, as no matter the level of strength he obtained, he was usually modest.</p><p>      "Barely. This time don't rush in, try thinking before-" his words were wasted on Tsukasa as the leaves upturned when she jumped forward. He met her fist with his arm and swiped her forward, slamming his hand into her wrist, his Sharingan not even activated. Her expression was neutral, even though his hit sent shock waves of pain up and down her arm. "-you attack."</p><p>      "Why don't you try shutting up before you talk," Tsukasa suggested, slamming her leg forward, but he jumped back. Before she could comprehend where his body had disappeared to, she had already fallen forward with her head banging to the beat of his hit. Her hands barely managed to catch her fall and in slight frustration, her fingers clenched around the dirt.</p><p>      She swiped to the left, blocking his attack before head butting him him the face, and he slumped forward in pain while she did the same. Chakra hadn't shielded her skin in time for the blow so now her head hurt just as much as his thanks to her shit Chakra control.</p><p>      "Seems ineffective if you're in just as much pain as your enemy." Itachi groaned and Tsukasa for a moment nearly smiled in amusement at his pain. It was rather rare to catch him so unraveled and surprised so she took that moment to memory.</p><p>      "I'll work on it," she said, feeling her head slightly throb. However, the fear and unravel of emotions from before was finally numb and she was falling back into her normal routine.</p><p>      "You're a good fighter," Itachi said, standing straight with a slight smile. "If you had better control of your Chakra, your Taijutsu would be better than mine."</p><p>      "It's my own fault," she admitted, bending down and grabbing one of the kunai that fell from his bag when she so effectively head butted him. "I was arrogant when I constructed my training regimens. I assumed I'd be naturally gifted in Chakra and that as I got older I would get better. I miscalculated this body."</p><p>      "Why would you assume that?" His question didn't make her falter as she glanced his way. She slowly held out his kunai, tossing it a bit into the air with her left hand before catching it by the tip so he could grab the hilt.</p><p>     "That's a long story," she replied, brushing off his question, slightly curious if he would think she was crazy if she did tell him the truth. Then again, he would slaughter his clan in the future. She couldn't forget that.</p><p>
  <em>     Perhaps we were both a bit crazy.</em>
</p><p>═════ °• ♔ •° ═════</p><p>      "You know," Shisui said, glancing through the display of weapons in the shop and watching as she inspected them. "I thought we could go somewhere more exciting than buying new weapons."</p><p>     "It's funny, I don't recall inviting either of you," Tsukasa reminded the both of them, but at least Itachi wasn't complaining and instead examining a brand new katana that looked a bit too big for him to wield.</p><p>      "Itachi, is Tsu-Tsu this cranky when it's just the two of you?" Shisui asked, and Itachi glanced his way.  </p><p>      "Nope. I even make her laugh," Itachi said in a deadpan.</p><p>      Shisui places his hand against his chest as if he was just burned. "Tsu-tsu, I didn't know you even knew how to laugh!"</p><p>     Tsukasa gave him an unamused deadpan, further proving his point at her lack of expression. Then again, when you only have one eye and half of your face is covered by a white eye patch or a bandage, there wasn't much room for expression. Not to mention every time she did show expression, her eye hole would slightly burn at the movement.</p><p>     "I laugh with Itachi all the time," she told him, her voice toneless as Itachi chuckled.</p><p>      "But Itachi isn't even funny," Shisui complained, nearly knocking down a shelf of knives and earning a glare from the shopkeeper.</p><p>      "Never really was my thing," Itachi agreed with a gentle smile while she grabbed a new case of kunai and traded in her her dull old ones for a discount, making sure to make her headband visible that way she would sell to me.</p><p>      "The mission is tomorrow. It could be dangerous. This could be the last time you can open up your true feelings, Tsu," Shisui told her, placing his arm around her shoulder as he steered her out of the shop. Itachi chuckled at her grumpy expression while Shisui continued to talk. "I mean, you don't want to go to the grave with the last thing you said to me being an insult."</p><p>      "I disagree," Tsukasa retorted, brushing off his arm. "I don't mean to pop your bubble, Shisui, Itachi, but we aren't actually friends. We are teammates. I will see you tomorrow, bright and early."</p><p>      "I know you don't actually mean it, Tsu-Tsu," Shisui shouted with a grin after she had already begun to walk away.</p><p>      At least that was her intention, but almost immediately she crossed paths with someone that made her heart overcrowd her throat with it's palpitations that nearly made it hard to breathe. She glanced up at my eldest sister, not Tsukasa's shit family, but <em>her own</em>. Kazuma Shiori was exactly as she remembered when she was a child, although the memory was vague since Misaki was barely a toddler at the time.</p><p>      And then Shiori died during the tragedy that befell the village when the fourth Hokage was killed. Shiori was older than Tsukasa currently, at least 11 or 12, and her hair was so similar to Misaki's at the same age.</p><p>      Tsukasa barely noticed her collide into her, mid sprint and collapse on the ground. Shiori grinned up at her, but it immediately faltered when she noticed Tsukasa had an eye patch covering her right eye. However, she didn't focus much longer on such a thing as she stood up with a jump and gave Tsukasa a sweet smile that seemed to match Misaki's parents comments about how she always wore her heart on her shoulder. Tsukasa took a step back, her single eye wide with the memory of Shiori once telling her that she could be anything she wanted. She remembered Shiori telling her that she didn't have to listen to their parent's plan to make her the perfect Shinobi and she remembered Shiori saving a portion of her allowance to put in the 'Kazuma Misaki flower shop fund'.</p><p>      When Shiori died, Misaki had kept that jar of money up until the day of my death. She never touched a cent and kept the smile Shiori always gave her whenever she placed another coin in support of Misaki's fruitless dream that Misaki never allowed to come true.</p><p>      "Hey kid, you alright?" Shiori asked and Tsukasa slowly nodded her head, flustered and embarrassed.</p><p>     Tsukasa attempted to speak, but no words escaped her lips. Slowly, Shiori's expression grew concerned and Tsukasa felt her throat close up in fear. Although, she didn't know what she was so scared of, and that made it so much worse.</p><p>      That was until she felt someone grab her hand, loose enough so as not to frighten her, but tight enough so she couldn't quickly shake him off. "Tsukasa, we should get going." Itachi told her, and Shiori glanced at their conjoined hands with a slow forming grin.</p><p>      "That's just too cute," she commented and Tsukasa felt herself freeze every time she heard Shiori speak, as if she were watching a corpse talking to her so animatedly.</p><p>      Itachi dragged her away and the moment they were out of eye distance, he let her hand go.</p><p>      "What was that?" Tsukasa asked, raising her palm to her face as if he left a permanent hand print.</p><p>      "I was just worried. You've been freezing up a lot recently," he informed her. Like a spike to her heart, his words rang all too true. That of course bothered her, because she had allowed him to see it. It was a moment of confliction that hit her like knives. At least, with Itachi, she didn't have to worry about him using this against her in a affectionate form of teasing that Tsukasa detested.</p><p>      "Have I?" She didn't deny it, but she wasn't able to agree. There were pieces of her broken. Pieces she had never tried to mend before, mostly due to apathy and anger that she couldn't seem to shed. She could strip her snake like skin from her bones, but underneath was another layer of memories she never managed to shake off, no matter how hard she tried.</p><p>      "You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to," he told her, as if reading her thoughts. "I shouldn't have even interfered."</p><p>      Tsukasa glanced up at him, meeting his gaze. "Then why did you?" He paused, his face scrunching up in an expression she had never seen from him before. Tsukasa had never imagined the mass murderer of the Uchiha clan could ever have an expression so childlike and innocent. She supposed, like everyone else, she had villainized Uchiha Itachi as a psychopath who came out of the womb with scowl and a heart full of bloodlust. It was stupid. Of course he could get this uncomfortable and embarrassed look. She suppose it's easy to forget that killers were human sometimes too. Of course, what would she know since she had never really killed someone before.</p><p>      Even as Misaki, she had always narrowly avoided it, hiding behind Shion and Hikaru as if they were her lifeline. Shion especially. That girl had raised from an annoying brat, always boasting about her talents, only to become the strongest person Tsukasa had ever met.</p><p>      Itachi turned his face away, rubbing the back of his head in a way only someone who was embarrassed would do. "Well...that's what friends do."</p><p>      Tsukasa blinked for a couple seconds as Itachi and her walked towards the red-light district. She hadn't even realized he was walking her home until she saw her apartment in the distant. "I have never had friends before." Even as Misaki, all she ever had were shallow relationships and a fleeting romance with Hikaru up until their death. Shion wore her heart on her shoulder, Hikaru was never afraid to tell Misaki he loved her, but she had always been a taker. Sucking everyone dry so she could gossip about them later. "I suppose this is what friends do."</p><p>      "I didn't realize there were rules and conditions," Itachi answered in a monotone, and she turned towards him with a slightly narrowed eye as she noticed he was making fun of her.</p><p>     "If you utter a word of this to Shisui, I'll kick your ass," she threatened him, and he slightly smirked, turning to walk away.</p><p>     "You'll have to get a bit stronger then," he told her, and she watched him go with crossed arms.</p><p>      "I will," she whispered, turning around to walk towards her apartment.</p><p>      Walking up the stairs was a chore, making her wish she could float. It was an odd thought for someone who trained in Taijutsu as much as she did. Once she was nearly there, she caught sight of her neighbor, the one with the brilliant white hair and resting bitch face, sitting on the stairs. Her feet blocked Tsukasa's path and her back was flattened against the wall while she read her book. Tsukasa waited a moment for her to move, but she remained with her leg propped up in triangle against the stairs.</p><p>      Just as Tsukasa was about to jump over her, her gaze, a bright pink with specs of amber, met her own. "If you so much as graze my outfit with your muddy shoes, I'm going to make you lick every speck clean. In a humiliating way, not a sexual way. Unless you're into that."</p><p>
  <em>      What an absolute bitch.</em>
</p><p>     "How about you move then, just to make sure it's safe," Tsukasa retorted, and she scoffed turning a page in her book. Even in the dim lighting, Tsukasa was able to make out the title. She had never read it in this life, but Misaki had a liking for erotic novels and romantic crap that she currently no longer understood.</p><p>       "How about you scurry off like the rodent you are. You're annoying me," the white haired girl said, and Tsukasa wondered, for a brief moment, if she was a bitch to everyone or she just had one of those faces. After all, she seemed to have no problem insulting her despite the fact that physically she looked like a child.</p><p>      "Takao dies in chapter 15," Tsukasa finally told her, watching as her head snapped up in a rather adorable expression of horror. Tsukasa gave her a sneer before jumping over her, not a spec of mud grazing her.</p><p>      The girl didn't look like the type of person Tsukasa would want to piss off. She could see that much in her eyes, but the young girl was far too emotionally exhausted to care.</p><p>
  
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I introduced a bit of Anomie from Chasing Smoke in this story, mostly because she's very important to the plot of all my stories so it's best to get used to her now. Tsukasa in general is actually a catalyst and is very important for this universe's plotline (I know. I should really update this one more often so it can be seen). But her being reborn is very important to the grand scheme of things and there's more to come as far as her plot.</p><p>Ironically, in my story Cheating Fate, she actually becomes a sensei Misaki. How awkward is that? To train literally yourself lol Check out Cheating Fate if you want to see more. Its main character is Shion! Highly recommend.</p><p>Thank you all for reading!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0011"><h2>11. Rabbit Hole</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>CHAPTER TEN<br/>-•-<br/>RABBIT HOLE</p><p>
  
</p><p>      <b>TSUKASA AWOKE TO THE MOST ANNOYING SIGHT OF OPEN CURTAINS OF HER </b>window with said glass pulled up allowing a heavy breeze that ruined her morning. She snuggled closer into her blankets, attempting to gain as much warmth as possible while she tried to go back to sleep. She remembered her real mother once lulling her to sleep when she was six, singing her songs and telling her stories. Of course, that all ended when her eldest sister died and she was forced away from all that childish habit.</p><p>      It never worked. Despite everything, and even after death, Tsukasa still heard her mother's song when she closed her eyes. Her alarm, however, had no respect for her own tranquility as it blared out in a siren of noise. She opened her eye, sitting up and feeling a bit of her slightly curly hair stuck in between her eyepatch and her closed lids. She dislodged it with a groan, glancing at the time and slowly remembering the mission for today.</p><p>      The very same mission that her sensei hadn't thought to tell us anything about sooner. She didn't even know what to pack since he was such a lazy douche.</p><p>     Tsukasa stood up, doing her morning stretches before packing just about all she could fit in her travel bag. She was going to pack it all in a sealing scroll, but it was much harder to have proper Chakra control in the morning and sealing arts required a usually underestimated amount of practice. Tsukasa hadn't even had time to make her coffee, so she just placed the scroll amongst her shit.</p><p>      She glanced towards the window, glancing down at the far distance to the ground. Despite that, the journey down was much faster than the stairs. Thanks to her tedious morning routine, her punctuality had suffered greatly, but she didn't much care since Hisanobu-sensei had pissed her off enough for a life time.</p><p>      With one last longing look towards her bed, she jumped out of the window. Now, between life and death, she forced Chakra into her legs to break her fall. She felt her heart rate sky rocket as her skin paled. Luckily a move like this didn't require much precision and was mostly just a reorganization of Chakra flow. She stuck the landing like a cat before calmly walking towards the village gates.</p><p>      Thanks to her own poisonous ki, with each and every time she over used her Chakra, she had began to look more and more like a corpse. It was a side effect that she saw long ago when she saw that her skin would pale, her eyes would hallow, and her blood would harden. Slowly her body would stiffen as well. Eventually, she would, as Izana Kira had proven, lose all control over her mind and be in a constant state of adrenaline as if everyone was her enemy and attacking them was the only healthy solution. It was very unsuitable for medical ninjutsu, which Tsukasa did miss. <em>I had been the best at it.</em></p><p>      Tsukasa barely noticed it had started raining by the time she got to the village gates where Shisui and Itachi waited with Hisanobu nowhere in sight. Despite the fact that she was late, the sensei was even later. She sighed from her distance when she saw Shisui grin and rush towards her.</p><p>       "Nice to see you finally rolled out of bed, Tsu-chan," he said, resting his wet arm against her shoulder. She gave the cloudy sky her annoyance as she looked towards the rain clouds for judgement, hoping they'd strike Shisui down with lightning so she wouldn't have to. Unfortunately, they never did.</p><p>      "I didn't roll out of bed. I glided," she answered, shaking him off. Of course, she glided with a hard thud to the ground, but he didn't need to know that.</p><p>      "Hisanobu was the one who said to get here at 9 am sharp. I don't get that guy," Shisui muttered, placing his elbow right back against her shoulder. She tried to use her very annoyed body language to prove that she didn't need both eyes to strangle him to death.</p><p>      "What even is our mission?" Tsukasa asked, shaking his arm off once more. Itachi, who had been adjusting his umbrella to suit the raging wind, glanced towards her.</p><p>      "Something to do with delivering supplies to a neighboring village," Itachi answered, and she slightly frowned.</p><p>      "How do you even know that?" Shisui asked and Itachi raised his brow. "All he told us was that it was bodyguard duty."</p><p>      "I asked Hisanobu-sensei the moment we found out about the mission," Itachi answered as if we were children.</p><p>      "Oh," Shisui replied, while Tsukasa calmly walked towards Itachi's umbrella to stand under it and hopefully get away from Shisui. "I'm so betrayed. You would rather be next to 'tachi?"</p><p>      "I'd rather be dry," she replied with a blank stare just as Hisanobu walked up with an arm full of sealing scrolls and a large duffel bag of supplies.</p><p>      "How are you this fine morning?" Hisanobu asked, and for once his normal attire of a straw hat fit the current weather.</p><p>      "You're late," she announced and Itachi snorted.</p><p>      "You've been here for only five minutes. What do you have to complain about?" Itachi asked, and she was slightly surprised by his blatant sass.</p><p>      "Tsukasa, it's always good to practice punctuality," Hisanobu scolded and Tsukasa felt her face scrunch up in annoyance.</p><p>      "Sensei, practice what you preach," Shisui retorted in her defense.</p><p>      Hisanobu grinned, handing her the giant duffel bag to carry and the sealing scrolls for Itachi and Shisui. He then handed them the other two back packs that he had strapped on each arm and passed them to Itachi and Shisui. Tsukasa obviously got the heaviest one, which was slightly annoying since she was the laziest one there.</p><p>      "In my defense, I just got over the worst flu. You should have seen my son. His poop was toxic," Hisanobu stated with a nonchalant grin, reminding Tsukasa of the poison her teammates had aided in slipping  him. </p><p>      "To much information, sensei," Shisui said as Itachi and Tsukasa made a knowing glance of remembrance from their mutual misdeed.</p><p>      "Cool. You are all here," said an incoming voice of a woman dressed in a tight fitting kimono. Over her head was a small umbrella, covering her hair. Tsukasa noticed the intricate silk of her clothes and the jewels in her hair. She was basically just asking for highway men to rob their shit.</p><p>      "What's with the wanna be princess?" Tsukasa asked and Hisanobu let out a slight gasp, as if what she said was offensive.</p><p>      "Tsu-Tsu, be polite to the client," the teacher ordered and she rolled her eye, glancing towards all the crap she had to carry for the long journey.</p><p>      "Sorry," Tsukasa said in an unenthusiastic tone as she tightened the bag of crap around her back, wondering why it couldn't have been in a sealing scroll.</p><p>      "Think of it as training, kids. Can't always take the easy way out and sealing scrolls can be unreliable. One splatter of blood, too much rainwater, a toddler shitting all over it and rubbing his butt against it like a dog with worms." Everyone stared at Hisanobu with similar expressions of horror as the man made a face as if he were thinking about a bloody battle. Slowly, the teacher cleared his throat and continued. "All of that can easily ruin it," Hisanobu reminded his team, but Tsukasa's mind already clocked out for the hour and was situated on digging through one of her pouches for her snack. She began walking towards the village gates, not really caring about the teacher's next lecture in favor of her protein bar.</p><p>      If he said anything important and relevant to the mission, she had no way to know. <em>I very much doubt he has. </em>Shisui followed her steps, matching them and placing his arm around her shoulders <em>again</em>. "Kasa, I'm hurt that you didn't bring enough to share with the group," he commented just as she finished her snack. Tsukasa continued chewing, brushing off his arm and walking faster.</p><p>      "Bite me," she said, taking out another protein bar just for petty reasons and began to eat it, ignoring the hurt expression on Shisui's face just as he turned to Itachi.</p><p>      "Itachi, Kasa's being mean," Shisui told him and Tsukasa tossed a piece of her protein bar at his face, hitting him right in the eye with crumbs.</p><p>      He made a groaning sound, attempting to get the stray pieces out of his eye. Hisanobu, who was having a chat with the princess looking girl by the name of Hanakoto. "Tsukasa, no throwing things except for kunai and love."</p><p>      "You're right sensei," Tsukasa said in a deadpan, taking out a kunai and watching Shisui pale.</p><p>      "Sensei, Kasa isn't throwing love," he commented and Hisanobu glanced up with a bored shrug while Itachi walked ahead of his team, being the only one with an umbrella.</p><p>      "I should be more specific. Only throw kunai at enemies," Hisanobu ordered and Tsukasa raised her brow.</p><p>      "Oh, I am," she reminded him, tossing two kunai in Shisui's direction. He ducked, but hadn't realized she connected them to a wire, so she  pulled it back and it slit open his cheek.</p><p>       "I don't know what hurts worse, this cut or the betrayal," Shisui told her, cradling his cheek.</p><p>      "I don't know how I feel about them being the ones to protect me," Hanakoto commented with a frown.</p><p>      "Well, I'm here so never fear," Hisanobu assured her and Tsukasa rolled her eye in disbelief of his cheesy comment. At the same time, she also continued rolling the wire carefully and placing it back in place into her bag.</p><p>      "Somehow," Hanakoto gave the man a once over, examining his straw hat and the nonchalant smile. "That doesn't comfort me."</p><p>      "Yeah and he didn't protect me from Tsu-chan," Shisui complained, covering his cheek with a bandaid. Tsukasa again scoffed, but continued walking.</p><p>      "It's called tough love," Hisanobu replied, his ever present smile never once diminishing. It reminded Tsukasa of Hikaru in that regards, nearly, since no one smiled as much as the teacher who she had seen laugh at a bolder because it looked like a donkey. However, both Hikaru and Hisanobu had very similar auras that were incredibly relaxing. Not at first, because in the first year of knowing Hikaru, he was a whiny and weak bitch, but he grew up enough for Misaki to fall in love with him.</p><p>
  <em>      He would have died to protect his comrades, but when it counted, he failed and I failed him.</em>
</p><p>      Tsukasa barely saw her hand was in a tight fist, and she noticed Itachi glancing over towards her with a lingering look to her hand. She carefully uncurled it and he looked away.</p><p>      "I don't feel tough or loved," Shisui complained.</p><p>      "It will kick in," Hisanobu assured him.</p><p><em>      It was rotten luck to have him as my sensei. </em>It was like the universe was having a laugh at her and she didn't like being the butt of the joke. It was debatable if she even had a sense of humor anymore.</p><p>      "No one is ever on my side," Shisui complained with a bright grin that made Tsukasa's brow raise.</p><p>      "So very true," she agreed, carefully rolling up the wire of her kunai.</p><p>═════ °• ♔ •° ═════</p><p>      Tsukasa glanced around to make sure no one was watching before she slowly unwrapped the bandage that secured her empty right eye socket. Underneath was a long scar of nail markings, all still red and swollen as if they had only just been inflicted. For whatever reason, they always looked the same as the fourth week of healing. The skin had closed, it had been years, but they still remained red and painful to touch for long periods of time. Tsukasa glanced down at her reflection of it through the pond, and as she dusted her fingers over the scars, she visibly flinched. Without another thought towards all of it, she quickly picked out some of her healing ointment and rubbed it against the scars. She immediately felt an icy numbness settle over her face.</p><p>      She never did like staring at her reflection for too long, which was why she had covered every single mirror in her apartment. She hated her silver eye and it was nothing like the shade her eyes used to be, having gotten most of her features from her real mother. Now, she had nothing to remember that old life by, not even many memories of her childhood as it began to grow blurrier and blurrier with every passing year she spent in this new world. If it weren't for the journal entries she kept as an account of her previous life, she likely wouldn't remember anything.</p><p>      Tsukasa began to wrap her face once more, only to freeze when she heard the distinct sound of tree branches cracking. She quickly stood, noticing Itachi come out from the cover of shade, only to immediately pause and halt in his path. Tsukasa glanced towards him, standing straight as he took a step forward.</p><p>      "Didn't mean to disturb you," he told her and she ran her gaze over him before nodding her head and moved to walk past him.</p><p>      "I was finished," Tsukasa told him, and as she walked a step past him she quickly grabbed a kunai from the strap under her sleeve and went to strike him down.</p><p>      He narrowly dodged, his brows twisted in confusion. "What are you doing?"</p><p>      "You dodged," she murmured, kicking forward and watching as his arm quickly snapped up to defend himself from the force of it all. The flat part of her leg hit his forearm and she spun in mid air, swiping her other leg to slam her foot into his face. The heel of her flats pounded against his nose, and she landed onto the ground on all fours, swift to attack his ankles and watched as he fell down.</p><p>      "You fucking bitch!" Itachi's voice changed and morphed into one that she didn't recognize and his body changed in a cloud of smoke into someone taller, and more buff. The stranger jumped up, holding his bleeding nose while she took off her cardigan, getting into position for his next attack. "How did you catch on so quick?"</p><p>      "You walk like a fat ass. Try avoiding sticks and twigs to crunch. Then maybe you can be more like Itachi, and less like a clumsy shit," she told him, her face in a deadpan as she watched his grow red with growing rage.</p><p>      "I'm going to gut you in every direction, you dumb cunt," he hissed out, wiping away the blood and almost immediately spilling out with Chakra. She heard a cling of metal from back at the camp ground, but wasn't too worried since Hisanobu was at least there. Meanwhile, she was alone with a ninja whose fighting style she did not know.</p><p>       "Gut me or talk me to death?" Tsuksa asked, and without blinking she jumped out of the way of a well timed barrage of shuriken. She felt the killing intent so strongly in the air that she could nearly taste it's bitterness. She swiped to the left, dodging what appeared to be a poorly timed water Jutsu.</p><p>      Fighting with one eye always had its set backs, one being the difficulty in seeing something coming out from the side. Usually, she could make up for it by honing her other senses. Before she could, however, the vibrant clap of thunder echoed in her eardrums, pounding against her skull. She jumped back, stepping in a puddle before feeling her mistake as a current of electricity shot through the water, creating ripples that she felt in her every bone. Her muscles turned stiff, and she felt the prickling sensation erupt over every inch of her body.</p><p>      She attempted, the moment before the shock, for her Chakra to shield her and maybe as Misaki she could have succeeded. However, as Tsukasa, the effect was abysmal if non-existent. She fell down like a sack of rocks, her knees encased in the water as the buff man began to approach.</p><p>      Tsukasa attempted to scoot away, but her nerves were fried and her heart rate had quickened to the point where she could hear every beat. "Where's your clever little quips? Sass me." Tsukasa tried to stand, but she fell right back down, watching carefully as he knelt down in front of her, performing a series of hand-signs that made her heartbeat skip. She groggily tried to slap his hand away, her vision beginning to blur, but he grabbed onto her and forced her to look into those deep and dark eyes that filled her to the brink with his stare.</p><p>      "Shh," he told her, and the Chakra he emitted, she absorbed into herself until she was lost into a very powerful Genjutsu, shielded by the Mist that had begun to surround them. "Close your eyes."</p><p>      She did as he instructed, much to her own dismay. She was lulled into the darkness. Before she could even attempt to break the Genjutsu, all of that pain faded away until it was a very distant throb.</p><p>═════ °• ♔ •° ═════</p><p>      "She's no where around," Itachi said, his Sharingan activated as he scanned the area around the river. He saw signs of a battle, but Tsukasa's location couldn't be discerned from scuffles of dirt and broken branches.</p><p>      They had managed to defeat their enemies, and protect Hanakoto, but in the commotion the third member of the team was forgotten.</p><p>      "Damn it," Shisui cursed, his palm digging into his eyes as he felt a pounding headache mix with worry. Itachi's face was expressionless, but judging from the way he tried to discern a trial from the fight, it was rather obvious that he wasn't completely apathetic.</p><p>      "We won't get anywhere if we lose our heads," Hisanobu reminded the two, and for once, his smile was nowhere to be seen and was instead replaced with a rather worried grimace.</p><p>      Hanakoto was perhaps the only one unconcerned. "I hate to be the reminder here, but I am feeling quite unsafe and would very much like to go home and take a bath."</p><p>      "Our comrade is missing, and that's what you have to say?" Shisui's eyes snapped over to the girl, whose expression still didn't change when she glanced down at the beds of her nails.</p><p>      "That's the job," she reminded him. "If that wasn't what you figured was going to happen, then perhaps you should sell fruit on a stand. I hear it's much safer."</p><p>      "That's enough," Hisanobu's voice was stern, stopping Shisui from doing something drastic to their client.</p><p>      Shisui scoffed, turning on his heel to walk away for a moment calm himself down. Itachi, on the other hand, stayed behind. He turned towards his teacher, "What are we to do?"</p><p>      "Find her," Hisanobu replied.</p><p>     "I object to that," Hanakoto complained.</p><p>      "You're more than welcome to continue home on your own, Hanakoto-sama," Itachi replied, and although his voice was polite, his tone was rather abrupt.</p><p>═════ °• ♔ •° ═════</p><p>      When Tsukasa opened her eyes, she was greeted with the oddest sight of unfamiliarity. It was a hand, casually pushing her hair back. It took her a moment longer to realize that the man was pulling it and her eye opened just in time to realize that he had slapped her face. It took another second to realize that bandages was nowhere to be seen.</p><p>      "Well, the princess is awake," the man said, causing her to let out a slight wrinkle of her nose to show off her own rising temper. "I was wondering what was underneath all those bandages. You look like a horror show. Absolutely disgusting."</p><p>       Hearing a quip about her eye sent a rather painful shock to her heart. She attempted to cover it with her bangs but he held her hair back in a tight hold, the cruel lines of his face and harsh glare of his eyes bore into her. Her arms were bound in tight ropes from behind her, obviously done with the intent that she could no longer feel her fingertips. She already began to gentle twitch them and attempt to bring circulation back into her hands.</p><p>       Tsukasa made a silent promise to kick his face in, but his harsh glare kept her steady and her mind sober enough to wade past the bloodlust. "I'm serious. No wonder you cover that up. You look hideous."</p><p>      "I lost my eye. What's your excuse for looking like someone repeatedly bashed your face with a shovel?" Tsukasa asked, watching him snarl and use his tight grip on the roots of her hair to lift her body off the ground. Perhaps upsetting the person who held her life, quite literally, in the palm of their hands was not the best decision.</p><p>      It was then that he smiled and kneed her in the gut. "I'm blown away. I've gone too easy on you for you to already be able to bite back like a vicious bitch."</p><p>      She didn't make an expression, but that silence made him angrier. He tossed her onto the ground, the pain was bad, but she was careful to use this chance to begin to loosen the knot over her wrists. However, as incompetent as the man looked, he obviously knew how to tie a <em>fucking knot.</em></p><p>      "Okay. I would like you to tell me a couple things, just between us girls," he said, kneeling down next to her and for once Tsukasa scoffed.</p><p>      "Did you say 'us girls'?" Tsukasa asked and he simpered before pressing his foot up against the side of her knee. The pain was intense, but just barely away from breaking. Being the age that she was, her body still wasn't capable of taking that amount of pain silently. She let out a shrill and pained cry.</p><p>      "Let's try this again," he grabbed her by the roots of her hair and brought her up. "I'm going to ask you a couple questions. You are going to answer like a good little bitch. If you don't, I'll pull out a couple teeth and then boil them in front of you. Then I'll make you eat them."</p><p>      The threat sounded very real and <em>very </em>painful, but sh edidn't react much to anything anymore. As Misaki, she had been tortured a total of three times. Then again, that had been during a war that wrecked the country and had no signs of ending. This wasn't war, but it brought back memories that had begun to fade.</p><p>      Tsukasa's eye ran over his many weapons strapped to his person as she felt of the tightness of the rope that locked her wrists together. Her legs also had a rope tightening her knees together, but her legs were strong and with enough Chakra, should she be able to control it, could severe them.</p><p>      "Tell me about the abilities of your leader, the Hyuuga," he ordered.</p><p>      "He loves strawberries," I replied. "Procrastinating. Smiling. Talking about his family. Etcetera."</p><p>      The man didn't have much of a sense of humor for her comment. Tsukasa, in the meanwhile, was wondering just what kind of person Hanakoto was and what they were bringing that made actual Shinobi intercept.</p><p>      "I'm going to gut you and then asset the strength of your team on my own," he said, taking out a hamidashi blade from his side. The dagger like tanto looked especially sharp when raised to her face. Tsukasa, however, was prepared, snapping her right wrist in one motion. The pain was intense, but digging it out of the ropes was even worse as she sent out a burst of unchanneled Chakra into her legs, breaking the ropes, simultaneously kicking the Shinobi straight in the groin.</p><p>      Tsukasa imagined it didn't hurt as greatly as being electrocuted, but his knees buckled with the force of the hit and he hit the ground with a painful curse. Tsukasa's brows were furrowed together, the pain in her wrist intense, but she didn't think about that, already grabbing one of the knives, a small normal tanto, on his person. Tsukasa held it to his neck, digging her knee straight into his spine.</p><p>      "You are made of tough stuff, kid," he said, and she tilted her head. Bits of sweaty strands of hair fell over her face, making the disheveled look of a girl in deep pain all the more apparent to any who saw her. Her wrist still hurt with shooting and tender pain, sending her nerves on a frenzy. It was a lot of work to stop herself from cradling it.</p><p>      "How about I gut you?" Tsukasa suggested, her hand slightly shaking at the thought of killing. She had never done it before, not even during the war as Misaki.<em> Medics simply didn't kill. </em>That was what Misaki would say when the option came up. She would cry and beg not to and scream about some hypocrite oath that was used to protect her from the thought that, due to fear, she might actually break down if she took a life. </p><p>      She wasn't a medic this time though. <em>I wasn't Misaki. I was Tsukasa and Tsukasa was a murderer.</em> She had memories to prove it. She had family in this world who were murderers. Her father was a murderer. It was in her blood.</p><p>      "Can't do it, little girl?" His voice grated her ears and she was wasting valuable seconds. She was giving him time to retaliate. She was <em>wasting</em> time. "Taking a life isn't easy, especially not for a weak cunt like-"</p><p>      "Can you shut up? I'm having an epiphany," Tsukasa stated, pressing on three distinct areas of his back before ending his whining with a last pressure point on the back of his neck. He dropped face first to the ground, but it took her seconds later to realize that her breathing had sky-rocketed. Moments later, she was choking. It was as if her throat was too small to let breath pass and it was causing her hands to tremble. Her chest was rising and falling too fast and she finally dropped the knife on his back. Tsukasa stepped off his back and took a couple steps away from him, still having trouble properly regulating her breathing.</p><p>
  <em>      I almost killed him.</em>
</p><p>      When she looked down, her hands were covered in blood, but moments later the blood disappeared, making her wonder when this hallucination began or when it ended. She wanted to kill him. Her hands shook with that unfamiliar excitement that she nearly let herself feel too strongly. If she took that last bit of pleasure, something inside her chest would break. She would finally become the Tsukasa of her memories. She would leave Misaki behind.</p><p>
  <em>      After that, I don't know what I would do or who I would become.</em>
</p><p>      In the midst of her panic attack, she lost the ability to feel the pain of her broken wrist. However, that pain came shooting back in a quick blow. She sighed, and she was sitting on the passed out Shinobi's back, cradling her wrist when Shisui dashed inside the cave.</p><p>      "Tsukasa! We're here to rescue you," Shisui said, and she gave him a solid deadpan.</p><p>      "My hero," Tsukasa said, unenthusiastic when Hisanobu walked inside next.</p><p>      "Very nice work," Hisanobu commented, his Byakugan just barely inactivating and he let out a whistle. Hanakoto and Itachi walked inside next.</p><p>      "We told you to scout," Itachi scolded, causing Shisui to scoff.</p><p>      "Come on 'tachi. This is Tsu-chan we're talkin' about. I'm not about to scout when she could be dying," Shisui complained.</p><p>      "Dying?" Tsukasa was mildly offended, still hiding her broken wrist since she felt like them knowing would not do well for her pride.</p><p>      "We found the kid. I would like to go home now," Hanakoto said, finally sparing a glance towards the man that Tsukasa was currently sitting on as if he were a couch cushion. "Huh. It's Shunsho."</p><p>      "You know him?" Tsukasa asked, her brows furrowing.</p><p>       "Yeah, he's a..." Hanakoto's nose wrinkled. "Let's call him a boyfriend."</p><p>      "The plot thickens," Shisui said, suddenly immersed in the drama. Itachi couldn't look like he cared any less than he did right now, but he continued keeping up the polite act that she barely saw him ever drop.</p><p>      "No offense, but you're boyfriend is a creepy, sexist, masochistic dick," Tsukasa told her, standing up and hiding her arm behind her back. The pain was immense, but she doubted that it would go away the exactly moment she did in fact treat it. </p><p>      Hanakoto sent Shunsho another glance before shrugging. "I wasn't with him for his personality."</p><p>      "This was a serious waste of time," Tsukasa muttered.</p><p>      "What's wrong with your wrist?" Itachi asked, appearing from behind his frazzled and exhausted teammate. Tsukasa slightly jumped, but she came back from the surprise just as quickly.</p><p>      "It's nothing," she replied, but Itachi's expression didn't change when he grabbed her arm and began to bandage and tend to the broken wrist. She sighed, glancing away and letting him.</p><p>      "How?" Shisui asked, while Hisanobu was inspecting the ropes.</p><p>      "Did you break your own wrist to loosen the ropes?" Hisanobu asked and she shrugged.</p><p>      "All you had to do was wait a couple more minutes and we would have saved you," Shisui whined, obviously disappointed that he wasn't the hero.</p><p>       "I am not the type who waits to be saved," she said, flinching when Itachi tightened the bandage. "I'd break my other wrist just to not have to hear you talk."</p><p>      "Sensei, Tsu-Tsu is being rude," Shisui complained.</p><p>      "Does no one care that I want to go home?" Hanakoto asked, and Tsukasa shrugged.</p><p>       "Not particularly," Tsukasa retorted, not sure why <em>that</em> was priority over bandaging Tsukasa's wrist from Hanakoto's psycho boyfriend who they would later find out had them all attacked so he could swoop in and save Hanakoto and be the hero. Of course, he wanted all of them to be dead so the experience was traumatic enough for Hanakoto and he could get laid.</p><p>       "That was a weird mission," Shisui would say later on, and Tsukasa, for once, agreed with him.</p><p>      "I'm glad I have a wife and the dating world is far away from me," Hisanobu agreed, causing Tsukasa to scoff as they walked along the path that led home.</p><p>      "I don't know what that was, but I doubt it was dating."</p><p>
  
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0012"><h2>12. Paint the Flowers Red</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>CHAPTER ELEVEN<br/>-•-<br/>PAINT THE FLOWERS RED</p><p>
  
</p><p><b>      TRAINING WITH A BROKEN WRIST PROVED TO BE EVERY BIT THE SET </b>back as it sound when the nurses first told Tsukasa that she was <em>not to train on a broken bone. </em>They continuously assured her that it would take no more than two weeks to mend so long as she went back for frequent check ups that would aid her bones with the natural process. </p><p>      If she could only properly control her Chakra, she could have the bone healed in two days, three at most since the body she inhabited was young. When she had been Misaki, she had worked on case studies and lab work on the field to develop ways to utilize yang release in order to further along the healing process by forcing the cells to strengthen in vitality. Misaki had perfected the technique towards the last couple months of her life, allowing her to perform in the field miracles that included something as complicated as regrowing bones and skin. </p><p>      If Tsukasa could properly control her Chakra, she could fix such an easy wound. Her memories as Misaki might have been fading, but the years studying and practicing the medical craft was embedded in her skull. Yet despite all this, she couldn't use any of it. What was worse was the theory in the medical journels Misaki once had were still largely unexplored, and without the ability to show the methods by demonstration, Tsukasa couldn't even teach anybody else her techniques. </p><p>      The long hours of meditation was the only thing reining in Tsukasa's annoyance. The wind blowing against her cheeks was a nice reprieve from it all. She realized, with cold indifference, that she was stressed. More than that, she was exhausted. She couldn't breathe and the throbbing in her body was pushing her to sleep.</p><p>       The time in between the current warm afternoon and the last time she got a good night's sleep was vast. Too vast. It was never enough and it was like she was always tired. Whenever she closed her eyes, she remembered the feeling of her tongue being torn from her fragile throat and whenever she looked at her reflection, she remembered the way Shion had attempted to crawl away from <em>Tsukasa's</em> blood covered body. She could remember it too clearly, even though the face of Misaki's actual mother was fuzzy.</p><p>       She knew that it wasn't real, but her own reflection was harrowing and a reminder to the worst day of a life that wasn't her own anymore. So no. She couldn't seem to sleep. She could barely force food down her throat or stare too long at her own hands because they were not her own hands. This life, despite how often she tried to convince herself otherwise, was not hers.</p><p>        She knew that when the dreams—the nightmares—began. The urge to carry out the feeling of blood gushing from stabbed chests and gutted men was intoxicating. She dreamed of that <em>heavenly murder.</em> She could taste the blood on her lips when she awoke and she began to wonder if this was how the real Tsukasa had began her decent into madness.</p><p>        <em>No. I am real.</em></p><p>She felt her meditation break and she squeezed her palms through the strands of orange hair. The burn of her scalp was a relief to block that thought that swarmed her mind with no reprieve. Something was wrong with her and she nearly couldn't control it. Her hands shook and the dreams were nearly overshadowing who she thought she could be.</p><p>       She stood up, feeling the wind brush past her cheeks with a calming effect that attempted to slow her racing pulse. The smell of the grass and the soft aroma of flowers filtered into her nostrils. She focused on the chirping of birds above her head, imagining them with their families. The intrusive thought of snapping all their weak necks—</p><p>       "Stop it," Tsukasa whispered, breaking free from that thought as she leaned over, resting her palms against her knees as she took deep breaths. They wouldn't depart. She needed to get away from the chirping, from those weak sounds of life that used to put her at ease. Now they only reminded her that she was strong enough to hunt them and pull their spines from— "Stop it."</p><p>         She took off into a sprint, not stopping to check behind her, holding onto some semblance of sanity that she just might have. A good run always managed to calm her in the past. Perhaps she just wasn't running fast enough. She sped up, feeling her thighs burn in a delectable haze. It still wasn't enough, so she pumped Chakra through her veins to help carry her along. The stray branches, dipping over the clearing, scratched a long line along her cheek, but she could barely feel it. The adrenaline and the pounding of her heart was pumping the feelings of no fucks being given. The pitter patter, the feeling of the grass and dirt below the thin material of her flats, chased away the horrible thoughts that sickened her to her core.</p><p>       That girl was someone she had to leave behind, if she ran fast enough, perhaps <em>that memory</em> couldn't follow her. She wasn't a murderer. She wasn't sadistic. She couldn't become that.<em> I lost my sister, my parents, my life. I couldn't lose what little bit of humanity I may still have.</em></p><p>         She paused, feeling her lungs fight against her brain, begging her for rest. She knew she had to stop. Stop and rest. Stop. Stop. Stop.</p><p>       "Are you okay?" Tsukasa heard a sweet voice ask, and she felt her blood curdle at the sound. It was soft, reminding her of her mom. Tsukasa glanced up, meeting the eyes of her long since dead sister. <em>No</em>. <em>I couldn't think like that. She was alive. She was alive and in front of me. She wasn't, however, my sister.</em></p><p>      Kazama Shiori. She had beautiful blonde hair, but then again, so had Misaki. <em>So I had I. </em>Her eyes were like two big opals, iridescent, and staring at Tsukasa which such innocence. Shiori always had this unnatural urge to help everyone in her path. She wasn't remarkable with a Jutsu, and surely had not been the medical genius that Misaki had once been. Instead, she worked hard to be kind, to show compassion, and she had such an amazing ability to make people actually listen to her and want to follow her. Misaki never had those types of leadership abilities, and perhaps that was why her parents never listened to her requests to open a flower shop down in south Konoha.</p><p>       Shiori knelt down next to her, reminding Tsukasa that she still hadn't said anything. Shiori was patient, not pushy, and she waited for me. The blonde girrl fingered the small daisy next to her sandals, her skin a luminous tan, reminding Tsukasa that perhaps she could use one.</p><p>       "It's tough, isn't it?" Shiori asked, and Tsukasa glanced back to her eyes. They were so damn gentle, and Tsukasa didn't know how she managed since their parents were so not and Misaki surely hadn't been. "Being a ninja?"</p><p>       Tsukasa collapsed, falling onto her ass like an idiot. Her legs were weak, her arms even worse, and she was so fucking <em>tired.</em> Tsukasa didn't know why she ignored what her body obviously needed. <em>For a medical genius, I was an idiot.</em></p><p>       Shiori's body flinched and she knelt forward, reaching over to slick back Tsukasa's bangs and feel her forehead. "I'm not good with sicknesses and stuff. Are you alright?" She nodded towards the bandages that wrapped around Tsukasa's hands, tight and secure and reminding Tsukasa of the ninja from the cave. It reminded her of his slow and steady pulse, and just how badly she wanted to cut into his throat, feel the life drain at the same pace as his arteries. Her hands began to shake, so she hid them behind her back.</p><p>        "I'm fine." Tsukasa said this too quickly, and judging by Shiori's raised brow, perfectly brushed and drawn to a sharp point, she didn't believe her.</p><p>       "You know, it's okay to ask for help," Shiori whispered, and she always was insightful, or maybe it was just because she knew Tsukasa so well, even if she didn't realize she did. "It's actually really beneficial. I get stressed all the time, and sometimes, between you and me, I cry into my boyfriend's shoulder until his shirt is soaked." Tsukasa never knew that about her sister. In fact, she never knew Shiori even had a boyfriend. She didn't know if this timeline was different or Shiori just never felt the need to confide in her younger sister. <em>Then again, I wouldn't want to confide in a kid either.</em></p><p>       "What's your point?" Tsukasa asked, not meaning to come off harsh, but she was going through some serious shit with a mixture of horrible and monstrous thoughts. They were the thoughts of a murderer. <em>A crazy bitch. Not mine. They couldn't be mine.</em></p><p>      Shiori smiled, her fingers tapping against her plump and pink lips. "I'm just saying, being a kid is hard. Being a ninja is hard. Being both? It's excruciating. If you have friends to confide in, then you should do it."</p><p>       Tsukasa's fingers dug into the grass, and moving them so forcefully that she was reminded they weren't healed and still hurt. She had a hard time opening up as Misaki and this was worse. Who could she talk to? Who would actually believe a word she said? How could she prove any of her words? <em>No. I was alone.</em></p><p>       "You remind me of my sister," Shiori whispered, and she slowly shook her head. "So stubborn. I'm just saying, try. Start slow. Talk about your day. Talk. It will get easier over time. I promise."</p><p>
  <em>       How could she possibly promise me that?</em>
</p><p>       Shiori stood up, offering Tsukasa her palm. She could only stare at it, as if Shiori were a stranger giving her candy. Slowly, however, because Shiori's raised brow, Tsukasa felt foolish and grabbed her hand. Odd, that she could make Tsukasa feel like a child when technically the orange haired woman was much older than her. <em>Then again, as Misaki, I never grew up. </em>All Misaki cared about at the time was keeping up her infidelity of juggling Hikaru and Yoshiwara. She wasn't good, but she was never awful. She was selfish, but she never actively hurt anybody.</p><p>       She didn't, however, think she deserved a second chance at life. She flinched at the thought, wondering when she became such a martyr.</p><p>      "I'll walk you back into civilization. How does that sound?" Shiori suggested.</p><p>       <em>Awful</em>, Tsukasa thought with a grimace. "What are you-?"</p><p>       "Doing in the woods alone?" Shiori grinned, a cute skip in her step. "Training, at least, that's what I said. To be honest, my little sister annoys me plenty. Follows my every step. My parents are worse. I think we all need a break sometimes, don't you think?"</p><p>       Tsukasa raised a brow at her comment, running her fingertips over her bandaged eye, slightly self conscious. "They all probably just love you and worry."</p><p>       Shiori's nose wrinkled, "yeah, but it'd still be nice to have a moment of me time, without them wondering what I did all day or who I'm with or what I ate. It's all just so...annoying."</p><p>       The smiling, compliant sister Tsukasa had in her memories was nowhere to be found. For once, the martyr image she had of Shiori were slightly distorted and she wasn't certain she enjoyed the new thing she saw. For that reason, once they got to the village square, she was thankful to part with her sister.</p><p>       "Well, don't forget what I said," Shiori said with a smile, and Tsukasa face froze. She wished what Shiori told her could go from one ear and right out the other, but it stayed lodged in her mind. It had a hold on her and she couldn't get out from its grip. This was due to the fact of habit, as when she had been Misaki, had Shiori said it outright, Misaki would have believed anything. </p><p>       Tsukasa was dreading the training session with Itachi and Shisui along with their negligent sensei who may or may not trigger her. When she arrived in front of them, her wrists still bandaged, she felt a moment of that dread turn palpable in her throat. It reminded her that her social skills were nonexistent and she had so many things about herself that she needed to work on.</p><p>       "Tsu-chan!" Shisui greeted with that wide grin of his. It almost immediately put a stop to her thoughts and made her lips curl into a frown. "Is it just me or is she smiling at me?"</p><p>      Itachi scoffed, "I don't think anyone would smile at you."</p><p>       Shisui sniffed in offense, but he didn't let it keep the smile from his lips. "You're looking healthy today."</p><p>        "Where's Hisanobu?" Tsukasa asked instead, not bothering to dignify his pestering with a response since she was fairly certain they all knew he annoyed her.</p><p>       "He was here for a minute but then some Shinobi called him away," Shisui said, and she felt herself sigh.</p><p>       "Should be back any minute really," Itachi told her, and they all fell in an awkward silence since they hadn't really talked since the attack. She was just thankful they hadn't walked in on her skewering a jackass. Still, she wasn't certain how to talk to people.</p><p><em>       Maybe Shiori had been right. </em>Maybe the weight of everything was crushing her. "So..." Tsukasa paused, having caught their full attention since it was rare for her to try to make conversation. She could see how it was weird. "How was your guy's days?"</p><p>       It was silent, and she wondered how she could be so bad at something so simple. Shiori's advice was stupid and Tsukasa was stupid for even bothering. As if talking to other people could make her feel better. That was dumb. <em>I'm fine. I'm fine by myself. I'm not happy, sure, but who in this sick and twisted world was actually content and happy.</em></p><p>       "It was good..." Itachi answered awkwardly, making her wonder if he was just as trash at making conversation. Perhaps that was the curse of being strong at a young age. He could do everything else, but the sacrifice was the things many kids took for granted and she could relate.</p><p>       "Actually, I did have a good day yesterday. I managed to solve the transportation issue with the timing." Shisui's biggest problem with his teleportation Jutsu was not the timing of it, but rather his Chakra reserves were too small for the speed in which he tried to use it. The timing, in that he often found himself teleporting too late or too early only to lose his step and stumble, was more of the rare issue that didn't damage his fighting ability in most of their spars. "I think it's close combat ready at least."</p><p>        "Yeah?" Tsukasa didn't actually care, but she was the one who asked. She glanced towards Itachi with a tilt of her head. "Is it true?"</p><p>       "Mildly." Tsukasa trusted Itachi's assessment more than she could ever for Shisui. This was due to Itachi being one of the most humble prodigies and Shisui being literally full of shit. "All he did was work on the formula for the Jutsu. Nothing too special. Just helps him keep balance really."</p><p>      Shisui frowned, leaning his back further against the white gate that overlooked the fields of wheat. "Why you gotta play me this way, 'tachi? I'm trying to-"</p><p>      "Brag?" Itachi offered.</p><p>      "Ah, that's what I thought," Tsukasa said with a sigh.</p><p>       "Man, fuck you guys," Shisui mumbled, causing Itachi to slightly smile. She was slightly surprised since Shisui wasn't one to curse, but the idea that he was now becoming more expressive didn't sit too well with her. Call it jealousy, call it yet another quality she didn't know why she didn't have, but it was consuming.</p><p>      "Show me," she offered, stepping forward. Sure, she was still healing, but something about pummeling Shisui's face into the dirt was fairly therapeutic so she didn't really mind it.</p><p>       Shisui grinned, and he stepped forward while Itachi rolled his dark eyes and sat down on the grass with his back against the fence. He was likely wishing that Hisanobu-sensei would hurry back, but she doubted it since their teacher didn't know the meaning of proper punctuality.</p><p>       "You are going down, Tsu-Tsu." His voice and use of that hateful nickname grated on her ears. "What do you think you will learn today?"</p><p>       "That you're all talk," she told him, getting into position. Her hand raised and her feet moved into a mato dachi stance. Her one eye was always her weakness against Shisui, mostly since her motion of visibility was less than others and he was really fast, but Shisui was on the clumsier side so she could usually make up for it with honing her hearing onto his rhino like breathing.</p><p>       She didn't get a chance as he body flickered to the left, then to her right. It was a fake out, and she knew that when she was forced to duck under his kick that came up from behind her. He had, in fact, worked on his timing and if not for her cat like reflexes, she was fairly certain her back would be bruised. She grabbed onto his loose top, spinning around as if she were in a dance, all whilst pulling him forward and shoving her knee into his kidney.</p><p>       She saw him wince, probably because she never pulled her punches or kicks during sparring. Usually, when she fought, she was more on the ruthless side and she rather enjoyed seeing how people would flinch when she attacked. He body flickered behind her, shoving her forward and taking out her ankles. They were her weakest area since it was hard to defend against those types of attacks with her injury to her wrists, but the real pain was falling forward and having to catch herself with her palm. The pain that vibrated through her arm, up and down, was intense, but she didn't waste time with flinching back.</p><p>       "She's still healing. Keep to her other vital areas,"  Itachi warned, likely because Shisui forgot. Said Uchiha sent Tsukasa an apologetic glance, but she was quite persistent. She flipped forward, not minding the injuries as she swiped to attack his gut. He body flickered before she could touch him, going for yet another attack to her ankles. This time, however, she jumped over his leg before he could and punched him straight in the nose.</p><p>       He clutched his face, and she could already see the blood spilling from in between his fingers. The entire thing was rather amusing, and her lips twitched for a moment before she lowered her fist. She gave him a soft bow, having won the spar at first blood.</p><p>       "'tachi she punched me in the nose!" Shisui whined, but it came out nasally. Itachi let out an unhelpful chuckle, that Shisui responded with a hurt glance. "I need new friends."</p><p>       "You need friends," she replied softly. She made the extra and uncomfortable effort to offer her hand and help him up. He looked surprised, but jumped at the chance. He grabbed her hand and she helped haul him to his feet.</p><p>       Around that time, Hisanobu reappeared with his signature straw hat in place on his head. He raised a brow at her placid expression and the blood dripping from Shisui's nose before his gaze ran to Itachi who was still sitting in a bored position a distance away. Itachi merely shrugged, his gaze indifferent.</p><p>       "Okay then," Hisanobu said, clapping his hands together in an excited motion. "We have a mission."</p><p>       Tsukasa perked up, and was annoyed to see that her reaction was very similar to Itachi and Shisui. Hisanobu paused, likely for dramatic effect that seemed unnecessary since he was dramatic enough. "What's the mission?" Tsukasa urged, and he giggled.</p><p>      "You're gonna love it," Hisanobu promised, but she doubted it since he said that a lot and usually that meant the opposite.</p><p>═════ °• ♔ •° ═════</p><p>      "You know what else I hate about Hisanobu?" Tsukasa asked, picking up the next bag of trash that they filled from the surprising amount of litter in the streets of the red light district.</p><p>       "I'm right here," Hisanobu muttered, picking up a stray can and placing it in the trash bag.</p><p>       "Yeah whatever," she said, immediately ignoring him and turning her eye to Itachi Uchiha who didn't look to be enjoying their 'mission' anymore than her. Shisui, at the very least, wasn't here momentarily since he tried to be lazy and shove trash behind bushes and flowerbeds instead of pick it up. Once Hisanobu caught on (<em>since I may or may not have tipped him off</em>), he instructed the boy to go back and pick up everything he hid and show him. "I hate his stupid hat."</p><p>       Hisanobu fingered his straw hat with a small self-conscious frown. "I get sunburned easily..." his mutter made Tsukasa roll her eye.</p><p>      "It's winter," she reminded him.</p><p>       "You don't get me," Hisanobu muttered. <em>I really didn't.</em></p><p>       "I'm satisfied with the mission," Itachi said, not much complaint from the perfect prodigy. She doubted he realized how annoying that was.</p><p>      "How?" Tsukasa didn't get it, mostly because they were obviously too powerful to be subjected to these weakling missions. At the very least they deserved C, and even that was pushing it. Sure, last time she got snatched up by a demented pervert whose head she just might want to mount over her TV (<em>which reminds me to maybe get a TV</em>), but she rescued herself with minimal damage.</p><p>      "I'd rather you were healed to top shape before jumping into another mission," Itachi explained, and she was sure he thought he was being considerate, but honestly it was just annoying because he was right. Her wrist was still throbbing from punching Shisui in the face, but that didn't mean she wouldn't do it again if given the chance.</p><p>      "That was my thoughts exactly," Hisanobu chimed in that happy and sing-songy voice that once again grated on her nerves. She could accept consideration from Itachi, because he wasn't an obnoxious little asshole about it.</p><p>      "Hey, sensei," she said, picking up a crushed instant ramen bowl whilst wondering why someone would take such a dish on the go and piss her off.</p><p>      "Yes my lovely student?" Hisanobu's comment made her shudder.</p><p>      "Just curious, how hard was the Jounin exam?" Tsukasa asked and Itachi sighed at her very offensive insinuation that Hisanobu either didn't catch or didn't mind. She gathered it was the latter.</p><p>      "I'm finished sensei!" Shisui's voice broke off their spat, and she closed her eye in defeat as the only silver lining to picking up garbage came sprinting towards them with two hands of trash bags.</p><p>      "Very good!" Hisanobu practically sparkled when he smiled, and it made her physically ill.</p><p>      "Must have been easy," she whispered to Itachi, who cleared his throat to cover his poorly concealed chuckle.</p><p>      They finished not long after that, and the sun had already began to set when she stumbled up the stairs, past her next door neighbor's long legs that rested over the staircase. Tsukasa didn't bother telling her to move this time, mostly since it was pointless with her being a white haired bitch. Tsukasa caught sight of her book, noting that it was not a romance novel this time and instead one of Fuinjutsu. That was the extent of her interest and she walked into her apartment, nearly collapsing on her bed.</p><p>      With everything going on, she had hoped the missions at least would be a welcome distraction. However, there was only so much that picking up garbage could work her mind and spin its wheels in a less than worrisome direction. <em>The gods only knew that I tried.</em></p><p>      She flipped over, sprawled out on her back as she counted the bumps of texture on the ceiling. It was a distraction, but it also reminded her that perhaps she could do well with a hobby.</p><p><em>      As Misaki, I liked shopping.</em> That sounded awful and troublesome, just asking for people to <em>actually talk to her. </em>She had once enjoyed drawing, but she was rusty and that sounded troublesome as well. She glanced towards the textbooks sprawled in her nearly empty room, them being stacked in neat piles that meticulously formed pillars of information.</p><p>      She lazily sat up, grabbing the first one she saw on the stack, opening it up only for a small note card to fall out from between the pages. Her brow raised, and she knelt down to lift it up, while placing the book neatly back on the stack. The note was written in beautiful penmanship, sprawled out in intricate designs of kanji. She vaguely recognized the Chakra being emitted from the paper, but she couldn't pinpoint who could have left it without having a direct or recent line of sight of that person.</p><p>
  <b>
    <em>O</em>
  </b>
  <em>ff near the twin trees where the rivers meet</em>
  <br/>
  <em>There I hold something which you are sure to seek</em>
  <br/>
  <em>If you want it returned remember the unseeing hole</em>
  <br/>
  <em>Don't be late, for your other eye just might be the final toll</em>
</p><p>       Her lips formed a frown, already seeing backhanded comment about her missing eye. It was weak, annoying, but reeked of an Izana like wordplay. She did not appreciate it and she doubted that was written for her pleasure and rather for someone's sick amusement.</p><p>      Izana Asa most likely. Tsukasa wondered if she realized that her riddle didn't include an actual time. Tsukasa rolled her eye, sitting down against her bed. <em>Twin trees where the rivers meet. </em>That obviously referred to a place, but she did not know it. The only rivers even in Konoha surely did not meet up anywhere. There was one over in the east, it ran through the stupid forest of death. The other one was up in the north, acting as a border between south and north Konoha. They didn't meet anywhere.</p><p>       "Vague bitch," Tsukasa muttered, not liking Asa's threat of tearing out her other eye. Despite all her talk, she was almost certain being blind would make her want to die. Perhaps. Or perhaps it might show her a tenacity for living.<em> I could not help it, I want to live.</em></p><p>       Tsukasa sighed, walking over and skillfully grabbing a geography textbook from the bottom of the stack, without so much as making the stack shake. It was irritating, but manageable and when she lazily flipped to the map of Konoha, her eye narrowed. She ran her finger over the river, seeing that they were separated by a couple blocks of land. It wasn't anything daunting, mostly just annoying. Still, no rivers meeting. </p><p>       Her ability for processing information, like maps for instance, was what allowed her to see it. In the west, past the Izana complex and the Uchiha complex, near the edge of Konoha, was a road. A crossroad, just next to a tavern. The road was what caught her attention, more so, its name: Winding river. The tavern, just smack dab in the road's path, was called: River House.</p><p>       It was by chance that she even saw it. Tsukasa rolled her eye for what felt like the tenth time, smacking closed the book. She placed it neatly back where it had been, lifting the stack up, letting go, and quickly placing the book inside before the gap closed. She went back to the note card, inspecting the rest of the riddle.</p><p>       After reading a couple more times, she realized that Asa had given a time and a date. It was specific in that she could never hope to forget when it happened. One does not forget the anniversary of the day one loses an eye and a mother. In that order of importance.</p><p>       "Remember the unseeing hole," Tsukasa murmured, letting out a harsh scoff. "I'll make one in your chest." The thought was a violent one, but it made her want to smile. Yes, she  would remember that day with the thorns and the roses. How lucky that her hiding spot was so entrapping, every time she struggled, the more it hurt. Those flowers saved her life, and Tsukasa painted them red in return.</p><p>       Her fingers grazed over her bandage, and she wondered if the approaching date was what made the thoughts more violent as of late. She had no way of knowing. She didn't understand the Chakra or the Izana.</p><p>       All she did know, was that it was intoxicating and rich with flavor. If she wasn't careful, she just might end up like her father, a monster and a murderer.</p><p>       When she closed her eye, that thought didn't frighten her. Perhaps that was why she avoided sleep.</p><p>
  
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0013"><h2>13. We're All Mad Here</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>CHAPTER TWELVE<br/>—•—<br/>WE'RE ALL MAD HERE</p><p>
  
</p><p><b>      THE DAYS APPROACHED TOO QUICKLY,</b> as if Tsukasa were now just going through the motions and not truly living them. She tried to act normal, but the funny thing about normal was that the more you tried to be it, the harder it became to mold yourself.</p><p>      "What is wrong with me?" It wasn't the first time she had asked that of herself, but just like every other time, she didn't have an answer. She wasn't normal. Still, it was frustrating to see that she couldn't even pretend.</p><p>      "You seem stressed," Itachi mentioned, which was different since he usually minded his own business. It was honestly the only thing she could stand about anyone, and why she didn't cancel their shogi games. She should have known it wouldn't last forever. People eventually get too comfortable, that was what they did and it didn't matter if she didn't like it. "You don't have to talk about it."</p><p>      Tsukasa moved along another piece, not really thinking about what strategy he was playing since she had never been able to predict them before. She managed to beat him a grand total of six times in the last six months, but he adapted too quickly. His weaknesses, his mistakes, he truly learned from them and made them disappear. He adjusted too quickly and she couldn't keep up.</p><p>      "Why bring it up?" Tsukasa asked, more determined to never tell him that she was actually much older than him mentally. She could never get over the shame of being bested by a child. <em>Kill me, take my tongue, my limbs, but for the love of all the gods, I needed my dignity.</em></p><p>      Itachi glanced up at her, his eyes tracing over her face and likely he did see the dark circle under her eye. She tried to hide them with concealer, she even bought concealer, but the shadows were too deep. She could tell he was worried, but she could only half heartedly deny it since she was worried too. Even worse than that, her lack of expressions made it more difficult to lie and she never had much love for it either. One would think being unable to form appropriate emotions on one's face would be well suited for the art of lying, but she knew that the part that convinces people is in the eyes and she had nothing in hers. Perhaps all that had been lost with her other eye.</p><p>      "I just thought it might be helpful to let you know," Itachi told her, moving his fingers over the pawn on the left side of the board, before resting on a different one in the middle.</p><p>      "You're strange," she said, barely noticing the slight affection in her tone. She cleared her throat in an attempt to rid herself of something so embarrassing as seeing him as friend. She still didn't understand why the two of them, Shisui included, were so quick to find ways to spend time with her. This was especially the case since she was fairly certain she didn't have much in the ways of a good personality.</p><p>      This is not just as Tsukasa, since Misaki had not been much better. In fact, she may have been worse back then. Two faced and prone to backstabbing that was never quite drilled out of her in her adolescence and onto her teenager years. She had been mean, saying one thing to people's face, and another behind their back. Thinking back on it now, that might have been due to jealousy and inadequacy. By the time she really decided to change her ways, to take her relationship with Hikaru <em>seriously, </em>they had all died.</p><p>      She would be lying if she said she did not regret her actions, but that regret had begun to fade as the years passed in this world. She hadn't done anything in this world so there was no point in having regrets for things that had not happened.</p><p>      "Sorry, Tsukasa," Itachi said, and Tsukasa looked down, seeing that he had beaten her yet again.</p><p>      She leaned back into her seat, that slight flare of her old competitive spirit had emerged from the many times he had defeated her. How a kid could be so freakishly smart was beyond her. Then again, a strategic mind was not her thing in past and she hadn't been born with a silver spoon in her mouth. She hadn't been born with raw talent. She worked for it. Every day she trained and trained. Tsukasa wasn't naturally as good as either Shisui and Itachi so she had to work harder than the both of them. She also didn't have a bloodline ability to push her ahead of the pack.</p><p>      If anything, her blood only set limitations that were very hard to climb. It made all the knowledge and medical theories and fucking <em>years </em>of practice, useless. Her Chakra felt like a phantom, haunting and slithering under her skin like worms. Controlling it was even harder, and still she couldn't seem to get it under wraps to do any of the old Ninjutsu that lingered in her memory from her past life. It was unpredictable and molding it was like attempting to mold steel with her bare hands.</p><p>     Still, she adapted and now she was at least able to do the bare minimum at Ninjutsu. She didn't have to be a prodigy, she just had to be good within her set limitations.</p><p>      "You're too cautious," Itachi advised, pointing out to different placements on the shogi board where she lost her greatest forces. "You are planning out your next twenty moves, but you wait too long to act on it. That's how I beat you this time."</p><p>      Tsukasa took his advice in silence, lifting up the rook that ensured her defeat. Her eye was throbbing. She ignored it adamantly, curious if it would hurt less if she could use old knowledge to numb area entirely. </p><p>      "And you didn't cheat?" Tsukasa asked, watching Itachi frown.</p><p>      "I'm not playing anymore," he said, cleaning up his shogi board. She blinked, realizing she had offended him. Her lips slightly twitched, but she wasn't capable of finding much humor, so her face remained empty.</p><p>      "I'm joking. I know you didn't cheat," she assured him, but he continued to glare at her.</p><p>      Tsukasa was reluctant to make him angry, since she was fairly certain she actually enjoyed spending afternoons playing shogi in the Uchiha complex. It was peaceful here, and people minded their business and didn't make conversation with her. Then again, that was likely because she was an outsider and people were reluctant to get to know an outsider.</p><p>      "I brought snacks," said Mikoto Uchiha, walking up and holding a tray of sweets. Itachi had a surprising sweet tooth, not at all fitting his personality, and Tsukasa noticed his eyes lock onto the tray for a split second before he reset his mask of disinterest. "Are you two finished playing already?"</p><p>      "We were about to have a rematch," she announced, glancing over to the small plates of dangos, pumpkin oyaki, tofu gyoza, before going straight for the okonomiyaki sweet potato pancakes. Her real mother often made them but those were not nearly as sweet at the ones from Mikoto.</p><p>      "Were we?" Itachi didn't sound convinced. Tsukasa nodded, pancake still in between her lips as she motioned for him to set up a new game. He frowned, obviously not as amused with her urging.</p><p>      "I am just so happy to see you coming back to play. Itachi never has play dates!" Mikoto said, patting Tsukasa's hair as if she were a child. Tsukasa glanced over to Itachi closing his eyes in calm embarrassment. That was amusing enough and she placed her unfinished pancake back on the plate.</p><p>      "Play date?" Tsukasa didn't like that term since it made them seem like toddlers playing with toys in the mud.</p><p>      "Mother," Itachi said, and Mikoto grinned, leaning forward and pressing her lips onto the top of his head.</p><p>      "Sorry, Ta-kun. I didn't mean to embarrass you in front of your friend," she said, standing back up and walking away with a giggle.</p><p>      Itachi's eyes were still squeezed shut after she left. Meanwhile, Tsukasa grabbed the pancake again to finish it. She chewed slowly, rather liking this side of Itachi since he was so serious all the time. When Misaki was his age, she had far more life. Then again, Misaki also had more friends and an equally doting mother.</p><p>      "Do you want your dangos, Ta-kun?" Tsukasa asked in a monotone. His eyes flared opened, and in his gaze was ice.</p><p>      "Speak of this to anyone and-"</p><p>      "Please. That would require me to talk to people of my own volition."</p><p>      Itachi shrugged, grabbing the dango.</p><p>      "I can't believe this." Shisui stood in the garden to her right, looking hurt as he stared between the two of them. "My best friends. Right under my nose."</p><p>      Tsukasa let out a sigh that lasted, at the very least, five seconds long. Before long, she began to wonder if she should have went down the Izana family business. "Shisui, can you even see anything from under that nose?"</p><p>      Shisui gasped, his hand rushing to cover his nose. "Itachi! Defend my honor!"</p><p>      Itachi blinked, standing up and opening the sliding shoji door. He walked inside, closing it soon after he entered. Shisui's lips thinned. Meanwhile, Tsukasa reached her hand out to grab a dango, only for Itachi to come back out, grabbing the small plate of dangos, and going right back inside. Tsukasa blinked at the pettiness of it all.</p><p>      "You're a mean shrew," Shisui said with a deep scowl. Still, he sat across from her and finished setting up the pieces.</p><p>     "What are you doing?" Tsukasa asked, and he glanced up at her.</p><p>      "What? So you will play with 'tachi, but not your best friend?"</p><p><em>      There was so much wrong with that sentence.</em> "Not particularly. You just suck."</p><p>      "How dare you insult my family name with such slander!" Shisui was adamant in his defense, but Tsukasa was less than thrilled that he made a mockery of shogi by even playing.</p><p>      "You didn't need my help to insult your family name," she assured him, her lips still thin as she held up the weight of her head with her chin on top of her palm.</p><p>      "Mean," Shisui replied, making his first move and thus trapping her in a game she was damn certain to win. However, she decided to give Shisui the benefit of the doubt that he may surprise me.</p><p>      The game lasted approximately fifteen minutes, only for Tsukasa to win and him to lay his head in his own arms. "You suck."</p><p>      "Crazy." Tsukasa glanced towards the many of his pieces she had wiped clean from the board. "You have terrible sportsmanship you know."</p><p>      "You know what," Shisui had already began to unbutton the sleeves of his top, rolling them up as she just stared at him in her casual deadpan. "You and me. We are gonna settle this match."</p><p>      Tsukasa rolled her eye, taking a sip from the tea that Mikoto had brought her during the initial minutes of the game. "What does that have to do with shogi?"</p><p>      "Everything!" Shisui shouted, jumping down the nicely polished wooden platform engawa and turning back towards her when he was in the middle of the garden. Letting out a deep sigh, Tsukasa finished her tea, and walked over whilst tying her hair in a messy bun. She took off her shoes, allowing her socks to touch the ground so she could get a good feel of the grass and the vibrations of Shisui's bear like charge.</p><p>      As she predicted, he dashed towards her in a flurry of swipes. Tsukasa hoped that eventually he would get predictable to tell what move he was going to make, and that eventually she would be able to beat him without effort. Unfortunately for her, Shisui was adaptable and unpredictable. It was lucky, however, that Tsukasa's mastery was at Taijutsu and during their spars, Shisui had yet to fight with actual Ninjutsu to even the playing field.</p><p>      However, his body flickers were annoying and fast, so she was always on edge to duck or spar. "How bout some ending rules?" Shisui said with a wild grin.</p><p>      Tsukasa scoffed, "don't people usually get out the rules after they start the match, you inconsistent shit."</p><p>      "Put some money in the swear jar," Shisui said with a chuckle, and she felt her eye twitch because he actually <em>did </em>have a swear jaw at the ready for her. "First blood." Said swear jaw was currently her paperweight.</p><p>      "If that was the case, then you should know the match is already over." Tsukasa jumped over his swiping kick, pressing her palm against his head and flipping over him, using his head as a support. "I hit puberty early."</p><p>      "Okay gross. What the hell, Ka-chan?"</p><p>      "Relax. It was a joke," she said, slamming the heel of her palm into his forearm when he went to swipe at her.</p><p>      "The hell. Never heard you," Shisui dodged her kick, "tell a joke before."</p><p>      "Figured with your goofy lookin face, jokes were redundant." She felt herself fall forward, but instead of looking to Shisui who had pushed her, she tried to save herself from falling. Her fingers sunk into the grass, and her hand scraped against a rock. The previous injury to her wrist was still sore, so the fall hurt, but it didn't make her falter much.</p><p>      "Wait, show your hands. I think you're bleeding," Shisui said with a pause. He would have sounded concerned, if not for the contingencies and parameters of the fight. Tsukasa raised her brow, showing the flat portion of her palm and while a bit red, were unblemished.</p><p>      "Well." Tsukasa took a step forward, getting into a new stance. "I'm going to break your nose."</p><p>       Shisui wasn't smiling, and instead looked worried for a moment. He was likely remembering the very likely scenario was based on previous fights where she usually went for his face. This time she lunged forward, slamming her fist towards his face. He dodged it with his palm, but she had already switched hands and hit him straight in the stomach hard enough for him to fly back. He let out a loud groan from his place on the ground.</p><p>      "Cheap shot." Shisui was holding his stomach, looking close to vomiting.</p><p>      "You wanna know how to get a hit?" Tsukasa asked, cracking her knuckles as she waited for him to get back up. "Say you're gonna go for the face, then strike low when they protect what you announced."</p><p>      "Oh. You guys are still here." Itachi's voice rang out as he opened the shoji doors to spot Shisui on his back and Tsukasa stretching as she waited for him to get up. "Don't ruin the grass. We just cut it."</p><p>      "Don't worry 'tachi." Shisui got to his hands and knees, making the motion to stand. "Imma kick her ass without making a mess."</p><p>      "Scary," she told him in a deadpan. "Hey Itachi, tell your mom to bring out some ice."</p><p>      Itachi sighed, an audible breathy sigh, and turned around to do exactly that.</p><p>      "Good thinking, umbrella. You're gonna need it." Shisui punched, kicked, and even tried to head butt me, but while he scraped himself thin to learn every aspect of Taijutsu, Ninjutsu, and Genjutsu, she was more dedicated to hand to hand fighting. That being said, he wasn't too much of a challenge to beat so long as she trained consistently.</p><p>       "It's for you dipshit." Tsukasa slammed her knee into his stomach, and he groaned in pain. "Also, that's not what Tsukasa means. Stop removing the 'tsu' to make that joke you sack of-"</p><p>      He succeeded in slamming his fist into her shoulder, making her stagger as he aimed for the joints. She would have cursed at him if she were more inclined to give him anymore of her voice. "You have so much anger, Kasa. Ever try meditation?"</p><p>      Tsukasa was fairly certain this was the feeling of being ready to murder a bitch. She proceeded to do half that level of effort as she kicked his legs out from under him. As he went down, she gripped his shoulders and slammed her head into his face hard enough that she heard a crunch as if she just stepped on dry twigs. His knees buckled and he fell back, clutching his nose as if it might fall off if he let go.</p><p>      "You broke my nose!" Shisui shouted this, but it sounded more like 'yabrukmynooose' with the way his voice was muffled in his palm.</p><p>      Tsukasa bent down near the patch of dirt next to his face and drew out 師. "In case you ever forget my name again, you can take a mental picture of that."</p><p>      "I brought the ice." Itachi was right on time, walking up next to Shisui who was still clutching his nose. He handed it to the boy, who had in turn sent a scowl at Tsukasa before he took it. "Why antagonize her?"</p><p>      "I don't know man," Shisui muttered out, pressing the ice pack against his skin.</p><p>      "I thought it was fun," Tsukasa said in a monotone, wiping Shisui's blood off her forehead head with her shirt. She felt the beginnings of a bruise against her head, but it still looked better than Shisui's nose.</p><p>      "Next time, me and you, but I can use Ninjutsu," Shisui threatened, but she had basically toned him out by now.</p><p>       "Alright. This is my cue to leave. Itachi, good game. Shisui...It's been...it's been real." Tsukasa held up a lazy peace sign, turning on her heel to leave.</p><p>      "Imma kick your ass next time, umbrella!" Shisui's many nicknames were actually rather impressive, mostly because she never knew how many variations to her name there was until she met him.</p><p>      "You know what," she said with a pause. "I'd honestly rather my name meant something like umbrella than something like death by drowning. Stupid name. Keep it up and I'll actually drown you, bro."</p><p>       "Alright mean," Shisui said with a bloody grin when she turned her head to look back at him. Tsukasa shrugged and continued walking.</p><p>       "Did she actually say...it's been real?" Itachi obviously wasn't familiar with the slang of Misaki's original generation, but Tsukasa didn't much care.<em> I'll make it a thing in this generation.</em></p><p>       Walking out of the Uchiha complex alone was a lot more awkward than walking into it in the company of a prodigy piece of shit like Itachi. Thankfully, her levels of social cues and abilities to get uncomfortable were very low. Perhaps because the Uchiha clan were such nepotistic little assholes was the reason for their demise. Still, it was mind boggling that someone like Itachi could do it. </p><p>      The more Tsukasa got to know him, the less she bought into it. Sure, he was ruthless on a shogi board, but the motherfucker legit ate an entire plat of dangos made by his mommy. <em>I was officially shook.</em> Luckily enough, she had been to the Uchiha complex so often that she at the very least knew her way around.</p><p>      It was only when she was out that a rush of wind floated around to meet her, and with it a folded origami crane drifted her way. She tilted her head, but nonetheless, she reached out and caught it in her hands. It was intricately folded, as if whoever had done it had been folding them for a lifetime. It was light and made with rice paper, as if someone had used their own shoji door to create it. Tsukasa noticed a flap on the inside was purposely protruded and she unfolded it to see a message written in elegant script that matched the beauty of the paper.</p><p>
  <em>Pronounced as one letter,</em>
</p><p>
  <em>And written with three,</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Two letters there are,</em>
</p><p>
  <em>And two only in me.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>I'm double, I'm single,</em>
</p><p>
  <em>I'm black, blue, and gray,</em>
</p><p>
  <em>I'm read from both ends,</em>
</p><p>
  <em>And the same either way.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>- I.A.</em>
</p><p>      Tsukasa doubted she ever mentioned to anyone how greatly she detested riddles. This one she detested for an entirely different reason, one, because it is insulting her, and two, the sender was Izana Asa. Unlike the last riddle Tsukasa had gotten, this one had Asa's initials and her very familiar crack at Tsukasa's expense with yet another eye joke written in poor taste. Asa had made many of them in the time Tsukasa stayed with her, and had the girl been more sensitive, they might have hurt.</p><p>      Luckily for Tsukasa, very little managed to hurt her. Still, she was smart enough to recognize a rude summons so she quickly changed her direction to the Izana complex with sluggish steps. After leaving, she had hoped to never come back. More than that, she was fairly certain she was starving and it was a craving that only an entire platter of barbecue could solve.</p><p>       The walk wasn't very long, considering the Izana complex was so close to the Uchiha. She assumed that was purposely done as segregated disliked clans seemed to be a commonality in Konoha. Segregation for the Izana, banished to the outskirts of Konoha, had backfired on the village for now Izana could be close to the border and hide their activities with far more ease.</p><p>      Tsukasa reached the gates, two lacquer doors that were five times taller than her. They were a deep red and connected to a walls and towering roofs that had a very old vibe that clashed with everything she liked about architecture. <em>Like, I get it, you have a lot of money. Shove it up your ass, you pretentious assholes.</em></p><p>      Tsukasa sighed, considering that perhaps Shisui was right and she did need to take mediation more seriously. That was a problem for future Tsukasa to solve. For now, she pressed her small palms against the doors, running her fingertips along the smooth wood as it abruptly opened to reveal a boy with dark black hair and a very malicious smile.</p><p>      "You're a sight for sore eyes, Tsukasa." His voice was slick and sweet like honey, but Tsukasa was unamused by his smile.</p><p>      "I don't know you." She pushed past him, and found a small dagger placed against her throat. </p><p>      "Not until you answer the riddle you were sent."</p><p>      She scowled, for that was the way summons worked. You were sent a riddle and the only way to get in was by answering it. That way, not just anyone could come and go. That was all well and good, but she really hated the Izana so it was difficult for her to abide by their customs. Still, to get this over with she answered Asa's riddle. "Eye."</p><p>      He let out a laugh, putting away his dagger as he slammed the red doors behind them and gave a very mocking bow. He went as far as twisting his legs and curtsying, taking off his hat as a sign of respect. She was feeling especially vicious now.</p><p>       "Very nice, miss Tsukasa. It is good to see you once again."</p><p>      "I don't know you," she repeated slowly as if he were a dunce. He grinned before lifting his head from the bow.</p><p>      "Wouldn't be good at my job if you did." He smiled again, and she studied his face, committing it to her memory since his words struck a nerve in her mind. He had sharp features, slim like an acrobat, light blue eyes, and pale skin as if he never went outside.</p><p>      Her eye twitched but she reigned in her annoyance as she turned on her heel and headed for the main house. The walk was on a stone path, and once she exited the entrance building, she was met with the beautiful gardens. There were fountains, wasting water from every side, flowers of all types, and lanterns along the stone path that lead further into the complex. They were already lit, which was all well and good with the setting sun.</p><p>      When she finally reached her old house, she noticed they had actually added more buildings since the last time she was here. That was an indication to the increase of revenue, which contrasted well to the fact that much of Konoha was still in post war poverty. That was ironic enough. Tsukasa let out a deep sigh, not bothering with knocking as the door opened before she could, revealing the garden path inside, and the wooden platform surrounded it in a square. She noticed all the different shoji doors, bits of black silhouettes inside. She glanced towards the woman who opened the gates for her with a brow raised.</p><p>      "Miss Izana." The girl was wearing silk robes with an amulet attached around her neck that signifies her indentureship to the Izana clan. Her hair was up in a lose bun, yet it was neat and elegant. "Mistress Asa is awaiting your arrival."<br/>  <br/>      "Whatever," Tsukasa said, walking past her towards the shoji doors that Tsukasa remembered to belong to Asa. She walked over floors and grass, not giving a fuck that she was messing them up as she reached her sister's portion of the complex. She jumped onto the wooden platform and stood in front of the shoji doors for a moment before another of the Izana indentures who stood next to the entrance quickly sought permission for her entrance.</p><p>      Tsukasa heard Asa's vague order and the doors slid open to reveal her sister sitting in seiza style and sipping tea from her cup. Asa barely looked up at Tsukasa when she entered, but the Izana head noticed she didn't show any formalities or take off her shoes, so Asa met her gaze.</p><p>       "Take the shoes off or I'll cut off your feet, sister." Tsukasa rolled her eye and did exactly that. The doors slid closed behind her and she took an informal seat across from her sister.</p><p>      "What do you want?" Tsukasa asked, and Asa chuckled into her tea. Her hair was put up in a beautiful bun, her long bangs sweeping along her pale face. Her eyes were painted well with red highlights and her face was a stunning mold of white. It was the tattoo that ran along the side of her neck, just under her ear, that caught Tsukasa attention. It was intricate designs and swirls of kanji and a crow. The crow was balanced on the hilt of a katana, and the blade reached down to the end of her neck in a sharp point. On the blade the words curled around the metal spelling out, 'I am my demon'.</p><p>
  <b>我是我的</b>
  <b>恶魔</b>
</p><p>       It wasn't something Tsukasa ever saw Asa being interested in, so the markings were curious. Tsukasa finally met her gaze when Asa poured her some of the tea in a clay tea cup. Tsukasa stared at it for a moment, wondering briefly if it were poison.</p><p>      "What do I want?" Asa smiles thinly, her eyes slanted and cruel. "For starters, respect. Beauty. Riches. Oh so many things, Tsukasa."</p><p>      From what Tsukasa saw, Asa had all of those things and more. She didn't comment on it. Still, Asa continued to smile though her eyes were that of a demon's cruelty. Ironic to her tattoo. She was prim and proper at the moment, every bit a clan lead as she sat in such a stiff position and radiated the superiority of most clan leaders. When Tsukasa saw her last, her hair had been caked with blood, her eyes bloodshot, and her language like that of a street thug. Now, it was like looking at a well behaved twin.</p><p>      "But I'll settle for you, sister." Asa's lips curled again. "Did I ever tell you how mother and father met?"</p><p>      "Random, but no. I don't care." That much was true, but it didn't deter her sister.</p><p>      "You will listen anyway, after all, we had a deal." Asa laughed, her eyes closing only slightly. "They were cousins, bound to be married from a young age."</p><p>      <em>Alright, that's gross.</em> Tsukasa didn't interrupt even though the implication was apparent that she was a product of incest. The thought had crossed her mind before considering the Izana clan valued blood purity more than anything. They treasured it and that was why it was so hard for her to be able to leave. Of course such a closely knit clan had these skeletons in their closet. Still, it was always a passing thought that Tsukasa didn't care to think further about.</p><p>      "Can you get to the point?" Tsukasa asked because she knew how Asa liked to flower her language and took forever to get to the purpose of her speeches. It was frustrating and Tsukasa was in no mood.</p><p>      "You will shut your mouth an listen. Otherwise, I'll have it sewed shut for the both of us." Asa took another sip of her tea. "They were arranged to be wed and did so when they turned 15. Had me nine months later and eventually down the line had you." She gave her younger sister a pointed glance, but her smile was still apparent even through the contempt in her eyes. "When they met, according to mother, he had a singular dream."</p><p>      "As people do." Tsukasa finally took a sip from her tea, considering she was likely to be here for a long and unfortunate while.</p><p>       "He wanted to unify the clan through bloodshed, cut our numbers in by a quarter of what they are now." Asa ran her finger tips over the rim of her cup, her eyes now taking a more serious note.       </p><p>      "What purpose would that serve?" Tsukasa had wondered about that before. <em>What had been the purpose killing so many of us on his way out the doors?</em> She never thought on it much due to indifference, but since Asa brought up the subject, Tsukasa couldn't help but wonder.</p><p>      "You are not an Izana anymore. All you need to know, is that in doing what he did." Asa paused, as if pondering how to tell her sister what she needed to know without really telling her much of anything at all. It was a common quality of hers, and just as annoying. "He can't shed anymore of our bloodline, Tsukasa."</p><p>      "You're still scared of him." Tsukasa leaned back, still not bothering with sitting in the same polite style as Asa. Tsukasa's stance was casual and disrespectful, which went to show that her sister was actually worried about what she was saying by not scolding Tsukasa on her manners.</p><p>       "He is..." Asa pursed her lips, the first sign of her being <em>unsure </em>of herself. "Radical, darling sister, but he is determined in his quest."</p><p>       "Why now?" It seemed weird that this was happening now, his threat impending on her life, only after she returned. "Why speak of him now?"</p><p>       Asa was uncomfortable. Tsukasa could see that, and now that Tsukasa got a good look at her, she could tell she was suffering from severe lack of sleep. "Several of the Izana have gone missing, Tsukasa. Though you no longer have our name, the blood still runs in your veins. You must protect it."</p><p>      "Why?" Tsukasa wasn't being told anything at all, and now she wondered if she had been too rash to give up the name that kept her in the loop to their secrets. Asa was unrelenting and regarded her with open disdain.</p><p>       "Because he has made his...intentions." As Asa spoke, her eyes grew grave as she avoided Tsukasa's stare. It was shameful for her to speak of this to her sister, now an outsider. Tsukasa could see that from the way her fists clenched at her side. "His <em>intentions</em>," she repeated with more urgency. "Very clear and his dream hasn't ended."</p><p>      "What does he have to gain by cutting numbers?" Tsukasa finally leaned in closer, irritated that her day was spent listening to riddles and half truths.</p><p>      Asa's jaw was clenched, her fists were a tight and pale white, and Tsukasa could finally see that her Chakra had doubled until it filled the room. "Because, Tsukasa. The less of us there are, the stronger he becomes."</p><p>      "What does that even mean?" Tsukasa leaned back, annoyed that Asa told her something and yet she could not understand it.</p><p>       "Do you know why the Izana have such regulations on having children?" Asa unclenched her fists. "Each of us are to continue the bloodline. The more of us there are, the more our bloodline is stretched and the thing we are <em>protecting</em> will remain dormant."</p><p>       Tsukasa pressed her fingers against her eye, the only sign that the conversation was giving her the creeps, if only slightly. "What are you trying to tell me?"</p><p>      Asa slammed her fist against the table and she watched it crack from underneath her strength. "He will come after us. When all of us are gone, he will be more powerful and his goal will be complete."</p><p>      "So me, whose unprotected, is an easy target?"</p><p>      "Yes. So watch your back, and climb the ranks of Konoha. Then, your information will be valuable for the Izana," she said, and she waved her sister  off, signaling that she was done speaking to her.</p><p>      "Do you enjoy sending riddles?" Tsukasa told her as she stood up, remembering the note she had gotten and now realizing that she might not have been the sender.</p><p>       "Please, only when I have to," she said with a roll of the eyes. "Remember to watch yourself. I know such a feat is hard with only one eye, but do try. Even the death of a half blood like you will do us damage."</p><p>      Tsukasa scoffed, leaving her sitting in her room, drinking tea. Still, even as she walked far from the Izana complex, she couldn't get the chill to settle from out of her spine. That was when she heard his voice.</p><p>       "Daughter, how you've grown."</p><p>       Tsukasa paused, realizing that she had walked where the riddle had told her.</p><p>
  <b>
    <em>O</em>
  </b>
  <em>ff near the twin trees where the rivers meet</em>
  <br/>
  <em>There I hold something which you are sure to seek</em>
  <br/>
  <em>If you want it returned remember the unseeing hole</em>
  <br/>
  <em>Don't be late, for your other eye just might be the final toll</em>
</p><p>      Worse, than that. She glanced around, spotting the crossroads overlooking the two pine trees. She scoffed. Worse than that, it was like she had just been walking aimlessly with no control. She glanced around, finally spotting a small black cat staring at her in from a spot on a tree branch.</p><p>      "Was I under a Genjutsu?" Tsukasa asked, knowing the answer had to be yes.</p><p>      "You gave me no choice but to seek you out early." The cat jumped off, reminding Tsukasa that <em>yes</em> this cat was talking.</p><p>       "Father...how you've...changed," she said, staring at it. The only reason the inkling that it was the former head of the Izana was that it called her daughter.</p><p>      It chuckled, the sound eerily bizarre from a <em>cat</em>.</p><p>       "Forgive me. You'll find that cats rather enjoy us. One day, you might learn as to why if you live that long."</p><p>       "What do you want?" Tsukasa asked, and from the cat, a flicker of illusion rippled and the man of her nightmares came before her. His hair was a stunning shade of black and his skin pale white.<em> It was an illusion.</em></p><p>        "It's a simple Jutsu. I could teach it to you later if you like," he said, and Tsukasa took a step back when his gaze ran over her face, lingering on the missing eye that was wrapped in bandage. "Don't suppose you'd let me see it?"</p><p>      "Fuck off," she told him.</p><p>      He chuckled. "Forgive me. I merely want to talk about forming an alliance."</p><p>      "Fuck. Off."</p><p>      "Oh, I will. You see, I'm going on holiday in Konoha very soon. However, getting in through the barrier is pain until said barrier is opened for...lets say a very special exam."</p><p>       "I hate it when the bad guy shares his plan," she said with crossed arms. "So you're coming for the Chuunin exam. Wonderful. Great diabolical plan. However, I will not be helping you. In case you forgot, I don't particularly like you."</p><p>       "You women can hold a grudge for anything."</p><p>      "You took my eye."</p><p>      He chuckled, "and I can take the other one if you disobey me. However, if you offer me your hand, you can keep your life. What do you say?"</p><p>      "Hard pass. I hardly doubt you've had a change of heart regarding family, so I'm not about to help you kill us. Even if you do actually care remotely about me."</p><p>       "You think I care about you?" Hearing him talk, raspy and deep as if he were always thirsty. "I wouldn't even remember your fucking name if I hadn't written it on my hand." He held up his hand, causing her eye to throb with a phantom pain.</p><p>       "That says eggs," she said, watching him glance down at it, he let out a slight 'hmp' sound, raising his other hand.</p><p>       "I meant the other hand."</p><p>       She read the kanji words printed on his other illusion of a hand 'Whiny bastard'.</p><p>       "Wonderful," Tsukasa said, unenthusiastically.</p><p>        "I'll be seeing you, daughter," he said, making her believe he might have <em>really</em> forgotten his daughter's name. "Until then, think on my offer and try to remember what I did to the last Izana who crossed my path."</p><p>       The illusion disappeared, and she was left staring at a cat.</p><p>      "You're secretly an evil thing, aren't you?" Tsukasa whispered.</p><p>      "Meow." It ran off into the trees.</p><p>
  
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I have been meaning to make a joke about Shisui's name for ages. Like bro, death by drowning. I'm shooketh. What an 'on the nose' type of death, am I right? Funny enough, Tsukasa's name can mean many things, but it is spelled in the masculine 師 form to mean master or teacher. That is ironic cause when I was first creating her character, I always knew she was gonna be a teacher (not really a spoiler if you have read any of my other stories with her in them, ahem, Cheating Fate), but I spelled her name 司 (Tsukasa) which is the unisex version of her name and means chief. I had my own chief jokes for that. Then when I was talking to my gran, I found out her name also means teacher so I thought it was a funny coincidence.</p><p>That was your official kanji lesson with Ul'Yana. It's been real lol!<br/>But we finally got to meet Tsukasa's crazy father. One thing I like about Tsukasa is that while she does have PTSD, she's not exactly depressed about the event. It's a fun thing to write since she's gone through some dark shit and still out there not giving a fuck. AND (just like Cheating Fate), I can make all sorts of jokes in this story that I cannot in Chasing Smoke, so it takes the edge off.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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